Iodine and bromine contents of some Austrian soils and relations to soil characteristics

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis was used to determine iodine and bromine concentrations in several Austrian agricultura l soils. The determined iodine concentrations in topsoils vary between 1.1 and 5.6 m kg(-1), the arithmetic mean amounted to 3.1 mg kg(-1), bromine co ntents are always higher than the corresponding iodine values, varying betw een 2.4 and 11.9 mg kg(-1) with an arithmetic mean of 5.7 mg kg(-1). Due to their different geological origin lime-free soils on average contained sig nificantly less iodine and bromine than calcareous soils. In general the ob served values are supported by literature values from other countries far f rom the sea. A correlation analysis df results with several soil parameters resulted in positive correlations with clay content and a negative relatio n to sand content. In the group of calcareous soils I and Br correlated pos itively with organic carbon contents and exchangeable calcium.