Study finds more heavy metal detected in Swiss grassland
More heavy metal detected in Swiss grassland
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Study finds more heavy metal detected in Swiss grassland
There is a significant increase in copper and zinc concentrations in intensively farmed grassland plots in Switzerland. This may be attributed to the regular application of large quantities of farmyard manure, which contains the micronutrients copper and zinc.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
Mehr Schwermetall in Schweizer Grasland festgestellt
Original
Copper and zinc can be expected to accumulate in the soil, particularly if farmyard manure is used for several years and is greater than the amount of nutrients absorbed by the grass. This was announced by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) on Friday. The findings are based on the results of the seventh National Soil Monitoring of Switzerland (Nabo).
In special crops such as viticulture, increases in copper concentrations five to six times higher than the guideline values were recorded. These observations may be explained by the use of plant protection products containing copper, which are used in viticulture to combat mildew, among other things, the report continued.
Natural as well as man-made processes such as climate change can lead to carbon stored in the soil being released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. The concentration of organic carbon is lowest on arable land and more than twice as high as on grassland and forest sites.
More
More
Study shows Swiss soils are suffering
This content was published on
A first nationwide report on the health of Swiss soils has shown that virtually all are polluted, and are not being put to sustainable use.
The changes over time are small, wrote the FOEN. Changes in the concentration of organic carbon are due to changes in the amount of farmyard manure applied.
As part of the Nabo, the state and development of soil health has been measured at 100 monitoring sites since 1985 on the basis of defined soil properties. The seventh survey covers the temporal development from 2015 to 2019. The top 20 centimetres of the soil are examined in the monitoring.
Translated from German by DeepL/jdp
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Foreign Affairs
How a top Swiss university is screening Chinese students
Media: Swiss medical services done abroad are billed at Swiss rates
This content was published on
In Switzerland, some medical services carried out abroad are still billed at Swiss rates, despite costing less, RTS reports.
This content was published on
Sophie Hediger, a member of the Swiss national snowboard cross team, has died in an avalanche in Arosa. She was 26 years old.
This content was published on
Several Swiss films exceeded the 100,000 admissions mark worldwide in 2024 and received widespread praise at international film festivals.
Swiss Alpine resorts covered in white gold for Christmas
This content was published on
Many areas at low altitudes in Switzerland are enjoying a blanket of snow. In the mountains, intense precipitation has delighted skiers.
SWISS makes emergency landing in Austria after smoke in cockpit
This content was published on
Swiss International Airlines (SWISS) made an emergency landing of an Airbus in Graz, Austria on Monday evening after engine problems.
L’Oréal acquires South Korean subsidiary of Migros’ cosmetics brand
This content was published on
French cosmetics firm L'Oréal is acquiring Gowoonsesang Cosmetics, the South Korean subsidiary of the Migros-owned Mibelle group, for an undisclosed sum.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.