Speaker
Dr
Otilia Ana Culicov
(Joint Institute for Nuclear Research & National R&D Institute for Electrical Engineering ICPE-CA)
Description
The health and performance of grazing ruminants are dependent on the availability of essential mineral elements from pastures but the pastures often fail to supply all needed mineral elements in the quantity adequate for livestock grazing.
Species-rich grasslands with Nardus stricta are one of the important environments for animal production not only in Romania but also in other European regions, too. Various studies regarding the biodiversity and the influence of fertilizers on the biodiversity value of the mountain grasslands in the Romanian Carpathians were performed. Nevertheless, a lack of information regarding the natural input of essential macro and trace elements needed in the special metabolic activities exists.
The aim of this study was to characterize the quality of permanent grasslands in a potential area of ecological agricultural production from Dorna area (North-Eastern Romania) by evaluating the content of essential and potential pollutant elements in order to optimize nutritional requirements of ruminants. This investigation is a part of a larger project on the assessment of the influence of organic fertilization on the total polyphenols and tannins content in forages obtained from four natural permanent pastures with predominant Nardus stricta and Festuca rubra L. vegetation. 83 plant samples were dried at room temperature and ground to obtain a homogeneous matrix.
A total of 29 elements were determined by epithermal instrumental neutron activation analysis at the IBR-2 reactor of FLNP JINR: Na, Mg, Al, Cl, K, Ca, Sc, V, Cr, Mn, Ni, Fe, Co, Zn, Se, As, Br, Sr, Rb, Mo, Sb, Ba, Cs, La, Sm, Hf, Ta, Th, and U.
The study of the elemental content was financially supported by a grant from the Plenipotentiary of Romania to JINR 81/18.02.2013-56.
Primary author
Dr
Otilia Ana Culicov
(Joint Institute for Nuclear Research & National R&D Institute for Electrical Engineering ICPE-CA)
Co-authors
Prof.
Costel Samuil
(University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine of Iasi)
Mrs
Doina Tarcau
(University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine of Iasi)
Ms
Inga Zinicovscaia
(Joint Institute for Nuclear Research & Institute of Chemistry of the Academy of Science of Moldova)
Dr
Marina Frontasyeva
(Joint Institute for Nuclear Research)
Dr
Simona Maria Cucu-Man
(Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry "Al.I.Cuza" University of Iasi)
Prof.
Vasile Vintu
(University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine of Iasi)
