Determination of low boron concentrations in nutrient solution
To study boron (B) deficiency and toxicity in plants in flowing solution culture, it is necessary to establish a wide range of solution B concentrations. The ability of inductively coupled plasma atomic emisson spectrophotometry (ICPAES) to determine solution B concentrations ranging from 0.15 μM to 925 μM was investigated. The reliablity of B concentration determination in nutrient solutions containing <10 μM B is poor. A technique, involving sorption by a B-specific resin (Amberlite-743), was established to concentrate the B present in low B nutrient solutions and to enable reliable measurement using ICPAES following elution from the resin. Acceptable, reproducible recoveries of B from low B solutions, containing known concentrations of B, were obtained using this technique. The technique enables the imposition, monitoring and maintenance of solution B concentrations well below the direct detection limits of ICPAES and colorimetric procedures. ei]L V Kochian
Boron content in daily meals for preschool children and school youth
Boron content in daily me als for preschool children and school youth was studied in this research. The boron content was measured in the meals taken from Wroclaw preschool and boarding school in December, March, June, and September. The whole meal was homogenized. Four grams of sample were mineralized and analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Statistical assessment of the results was made with the Statistica v.5.1 program. The recovery was determined by the use of the standard additions method to evaluate the accuracy of the procedure. The mean boron content in 1 kg dry weight of a preschool meal was 2.31 mg B/kg dry wt, and in boarding-school meals, it was 2.15 mg B/kg dry wt. Based on these results, the estimated daily boron intake was calculated. The daily boron intake from food by preschool children was found to be 1.01 mg B/d for children and 1.2 mg B/d for youth. The actual intake of boron from food was determined after having related the quantity of the element to 1 kg of body weight. In the case of children, the mean intake of boron was 0.05 mg B/kg body wt/d, whereas in teenagers, it was 0.016 mg B/kg body wt/d. The results of this research show no significant differences between daily boron intake for preschool children and boarding-school youth.
Mobilization of boron in convergent margins: Implications for the boron geochemical cycle
Analysis of total dissolved boron and boron isotopes for interstitial waters from recent Ocean Drilling Program drill cores in two accretionary prisms indicates an efficient return to the ocean of exchangeable boron of subducted sediments via pore-fluid expulsion. This source of boron helps to balance the ocean sinks, but a complete balance of the ocean budget requires deeply subducted boron to be returned efficiently to the oceans via explosive arc volcanism.