PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hootman, R.G.
AU  - Kelsey, P.D.
AU  - Reid, R.
AU  - von der Heide-Spravka, K.
TI  - Factors Affecting Accumulation of Deicing Salts in Soils Around Trees
AID  - 10.48044/jauf.1994.035
DP  - 1994 May 01
TA  - Arboriculture & Urban Forestry (AUF)
PG  - 196--201
VI  - 20
IP  - 3
4099  - http://auf.isa-arbor.com/content/20/3/196.short
4100  - http://auf.isa-arbor.com/content/20/3/196.full
SO  - JOA1994 May 01; 20
AB  - 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 μg/g) and chloride (348 μg/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 μg/g sodium and 23 μg/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 μg/g to 2,277 μg/g) compared to adjacent raised planter soils. The raised planters did not receive saltladen runoff, splash, plowed snow, or direct application from salt spreaders.