Concentration of Selenium and Other Minerals and Their Relationship in Soils and Fodder Plants in Kosovo

1. Faculty of Environmental Science and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 1432 Ås, Norway
2. Norwegian Veterinary Institute, 0106 Oslo, Norway
3. Department of Biotechnology in Zootechnique, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary, University of Pristina, 10000 Pristina, Kosovo
Email: balram.singh@nmbu.no (B.R.S.)
*Corresponding author
Manuscript received September 4, 2023; accepted October 7, 2023; published December 20, 2023.

Abstract—Minerals play many important functions in plant and animal metabolism. Therefore, we investigated the concentration of Se and other minerals and their relationships in soils and fodder plants in Kosovo. Seventy-three samples of each soil and fodder plants (grass, maize, and wheat) from 30 farms were collected. After processing and digestion, soil and plant samples were analyzed for mineral concentration by ICP-MS. Mineral concentrations in soil and fodder crops, and the best predicting/explanatory models for micro minerals concentration, achieved by stepwise linear regression, are presented. Results showed very low concentration of Se in most of the soil and all fodder samples. In addition, the concentration of Co, Zn and Fe was not sufficient to satisfy requirements for all categories of farm animals. Plant Se concentration showed a positive relationship with Se concentration in soils. Plant Zn, Mo, Mn, Fe and Pb, in general, showed no significant relationship with their concentration in soil, while plant Co and Cd showed positive relationship only in maize, and Cu in wheat grain. Among the soil properties, pH had the highest effect on the concentrations of Co, Mo, Mn, Cd and Pb in fodder crops.

Keywords—micro minerals, selenium, deficiency, soil-plant relationship, Kosovo

Cite: Arsim Ademi, Aksel Bernhoft, Hysen Bytyqi, and Bal Ram Singh, "Concentration of Selenium and Other Minerals and Their Relationship in Soils and Fodder Plants in Kosovo," International Journal of Sustainability in Energy and Environment, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-8, 2024.

Copyright © 2024 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).