Factors Affecting Accumulation of Deicing Salts in Soils Around Trees    (View PDF)

R.G. Hootman, P.D. Kelsey, R. Reid, and K. von der Heide-Spravka

Abstract: Parkways, street tree planter boxes, and highway medians and roadsides are locations where soil accumulation of deicing salts is highest. Sodium chloride is the most common deicer applied in the United States. Sodium chloride and other salts accumulating in the root zone may instigate and exacerbate street tree decline. Salts affect soil aggregate stability, porosity, and water and nutrient uptake in trees. Data collected in Chicago, Illinois show much higher soil sodium (1,272 jxg/g) and chloride (348 |ig/g) in the center of newly installed, narrow, raised medians along Lake Shore Drive after one winter, compared to the center of wide medians along the roadway (236 ng/g sodium and 23 (ig/g chloride). Proximity to high speed traffic and its associated spray and splash were reasons for this. In suburban Downers Grove, Illinois, grade level street tree planter soils had extremely high levels of sodium (1,426 |ig/g to 2,277 |ig/g) compared to adjacent raised planter soils. The raised planters did not receive saltladen runoff, splash, plowed snow, or direct application from salt spreaders.

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https://doi.org/10.48044/jauf.1994.035