The advanced soil geochemical atlas of England and Wales

[helvella]

Just in case you are bursting to know where in England and Wales has the highest natural soil selenium levels - or hundreds of other details - here's a source of answers!

The advanced soil geochemical atlas of England and Wales

The analyses presented in this advanced atlas are for those soil samples collected for the National Soil Inventory (NSI) by the Soil Survey of England and Wales (now the National Soil Resources Institute, Cranfield University, UK) as described in McGrath and Loveland1 (1992) in the original Soil Geochemical Atlas of England and Wales.

The geochemical analyses presented in the original atlas were for a series of 17 elements.

The advanced atlas presents analyses and maps for a total of 53 elements, which includes the original 17 elements.

bgs.ac.uk/gbase/advsoilatla...

It is a large download and takes a while. It is then a large PDF on your computer! Probably would overwhelm most phones.

I came across this after looking specifically for selenium levels. But it has so much more.

Obviously of most interest to gardeners, farmers and those who tend to know where their food comes from.

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

Oooh, it looks like I'm in the very top part! Mind you, the soil in my garden has so much sand blown in every year it covers it so do you think it "dilutes" it 🤔

[helvella Administrator in reply to SeasideSusie]

They do make a suggestion that the windward side of the UK might have higher selenium because it gets some from the sea, rain and wind-borne particles.

[Ernest2]

Interesting. Many thanks Helvella for that.

Note to self to limit Brazil nuts (for the selenium) to about 2 max per day (see the end of this article for the toxicity warning)

medicalnewstoday.com/articl...

Best wishes,

Ernest

[helvella Administrator]

Have to say, I thought this was going to be one of those posts which I put up, some might read, but no-one responds at all.

(That is the way of things. I don't mind when that happens. We can't always think of anything we want to see even if we find things slightly interesting. And I do post things which might be of zero value to anyone!)

[Oatcake]

With the exception of Devon and a few other spots it looks like mountainous areas have higher levels Wales, Cumbria, the Pennines?

[HighlandMo]

I love maps and this is so interesting. Is there one for Scotland????

[helvella Administrator in reply to HighlandMo]

Not that I am aware of - at least not exactly equivalent. But there are these:

Urban soil geochemistry of Glasgow

nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/1...

Clyde Basin geochemical survey

bgs.ac.uk/gbase/ClydeBasin....

Of course, Glasgow isn't highlands, is it.?

If you go here:

bgs.ac.uk/gbase/downloads.html

... there is a list of downloads - which lists several cities/large towns including:

Cardiff

Corby

Doncaster

Lincoln

Mansfield

Scunthorpe

Sheffield

Stoke–on–Trent

Swansea

Telford

York

[Ellie-Louise]

It would be interesting to compare that map with a farming map. It might just be that the depleted areas are all areas where farmland already exists. There is a lot of farmland around where I live in the South.

[helvella Administrator in reply to Ellie-Louise]

There is a lot of farmland in Wales. But also a lot of high selenium.

Upland and estuarine/marsh sheep grazing is not the same as arable, I do recognise that. But the high selenium includes some arable areas.

That doesn't mean cultivation doesn't deplete selenium.

[humanbean]

An interesting link - thanks, helvella .

I found it rather hard to find the link to the PDF, so here it is for people who might also struggle :

resources.bgs.ac.uk/ebooks/...

[HighlandMo]

Thank you. I'll have a look.