Soil sampling was carried out in the Velika Morava river valley, covering the area from Velika Plana to the mouth of Morava to the Danube. The composite soil samples, representing alluvial soils (22 samples), cambisols (14) and smonitzas (4), were taken from plough layers, based on a regular square grid with intervals set at 5x5 km, covering total area of 100,000 ha. The total and available fluorine contents were determined in the soils samples. The highest average amount of total fluorine was found for alluvial soils (391 mg kg-1), then for smonitzas (348 mg kg-1) and the lowest one for cambisols (285 mg kg-1). These amounts are within normal fluorine content for soils (150-400 mg kg-1), although the maximum found levels were even about 500 mg kg-1. The available fluorine content was very low (< 1 mg kg-1), being mostly less than 0.2 % from its total amount, so it could be concluded that there was no danger from fluorine accumulation in the plants. Statistically significant correlation coefficient between total and available fluorine contents was not obtained. The total and available fluorine contents have mostly been in the correlation (with positive sign) with soil pH and the content of mechanical fraction silt+clay. Significant correlation coefficients between total fluorine content and the content of some heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Co, Cu, As) were also found, which indicated their mutual geochemical origin

The purpose of this paper was to determine whether soils, located in the vicinity of the aluminium plant in Podgorica, are polluted with fluorine. For this purpose 60 soil samples (26 of brown and 34 of alluvial soil) were collected from two depths (0 to 20 and 20 to 40 cm). Total and available fluorine were determined by potentiometric method, after necessary preparations of soil samples for the analysis. It was found that in almost all soil samples the content of total fluorine was above 300 mg/kg - maximum permissible value for the content of this element in agricultural soils. Highest values were found on locations southwards of the aluminium plant. However, the content of available fluorine (soluble in water) in the soil samples is very low (average value is 0.70 mg/kg) indicating that major part of deposited fluorine had transformed itself into insoluble compounds like CaF2

In this paper results are presented of agrochemical and mineralogical analyses of 14 types of important soils in Serbia (Vojvodina and Central Serbia) and total content and availability of base alkali elements (Ca, Mg Na, K) are determined. Total element content was as follows: Ca 2.22%; K 1.77%; Na 0.85% and Mg 0.61%. Total content of alkali metals in the soils investigated and their variations within and between the soil types, is in very good/close correlation with contents of primary and secondary minerals as well as their rates of weathering. Taking in account the average availabilities the most abundant is calcium with 947 mg/100 g, whilst the averages of the other elements (Mg, K and Na) are quite similar and are about of 40 mg/100 g of soil. The results obtained have shown that the soils investigated are well to moderate provided with K, Ca and Mg and that their deficit could not be expected in plant nutrition, apart for some plants/cultures in the case of magnesium due to occasionally higher Ca/Mg and K/Mg ratios

Some important chemical properties of various samples of two types of acid soil from Western Serbia (pseudogley and brown forest) are presented in this paper. Mobile Al was found in elevated and toxic quantities (10?30 mg/100 g) in the more acid samples of pseudogley soil. All samples of brown forest soil were very acid and the quantities of mobile Al were in the range from 12.8 to 90.0 mg/100 g. In a selected number of pseudogley soils, the influence of pH and other soil properties on the mineralization and nitrification processes was investigated. Strong inhibition of nitrification at low soil pH was found to be related to high quantities of mobile Al. At pH values less than 4.0 (in 1 M KCl), processes of chemical nitrification and denitrification of applied nitrites were registered in the pseudogley soils. .

Iron is one of the most common elements in the Earth's crust and it is fourth on the list of abundance after oxygen, silicon and aluminum. It plays an important role in the biosphere. In plants it is necessary for the formation of chlorophyll, while in animals it acts in transferring oxygen from air or water to animal tissue. During a large-scale sample collection a regular orthogonal 10x10 km grid has been used to avoid bias in site location. From the set of about 3000 samples from Vojvodina, Sumadija and Northern Pomoravlje, a selection of samples (from the arable layer 0-25 cm) has been taken to represent the most important soil types. Total iron content has been determined by the atomic absorption spectrophotometric method (AAS). The soil samples have also been assayed for metal on a phase-specific basis following procedures according to the EC protocol Spatial distribution of iron content over the investigated area has been presented in a pedogeochemical map. The presented results have shown a wide range of iron contents, from 0.73 to 10.86% Fe. Statistical analysis of the results obtained from 103 samples has shown an average value of 4.06% Fe with the standard deviation of 1.682 and the coefficient of variation of 41.49%. Iron contents lower than 2.10% have been found in 4.32% of the samples, medium and average values (2.10-4.97% Fe) have been found in 55% of the samples, values higher then the average have been found in 26.3% of the samples and the contents higher than 7.86% have been found in 13.96% of the samples. Arenosols and rigosols developed on aeolian sands have shown the lowest levels of total iron, from 0.73 to 1.82% Fe. On the other side ranker developed on serpentinite has shown maximum contents, between 8.53 and 10.86% Fe. Soils developed either on loess or tertiary clay parent rocks (halomorphic soils, some marshy humogleys and vertisols) have shown a wider range of results (1.33-4.65% Fe) with a shift of results towards average values. The majority of the investigated soils that have fallen within the group between 3.00 and 4.96% Fe were represented by pseudogley, eugley luvisol, fluvisol, eutric cambisol, ranker and rendzina. Semigley and chernozem have shown a wider range of distribution of results, from 2.18 to 7.72% Fe.Generally, the analyzed soils have shown lower average results compared with the available literature data. Chemical speciation has shown that an average iron content of 84.24%, with the range from 70 to 92%, was primarily associated with residual forms bound to the silicate lithogenic fraction. An average of 12.69%, with the range from 6 to 26%, has been found as Fe-Mn-oxide/hydroxide fraction. Organic-matter-bound iron (1-9%) and exchangeable and carbonate-bound iron (0.09-1.92%) have been present to a lesser extent.