Modeling cadmium accumulation in radish, carrot, spinach and cabbage

Heavy metals like cadmium and arsenic have serious health consequences and ecosystem impacts. Due to various factors including the disposal of municipal and industrial wastes, application of fertilizers, atmospheric deposition and discharge of wastewater on land, has resulted in increase in the concentration of heavy metals in the soil. Crops and vegetables grown on such soil accumulate heavy metals, which leads to phyto-toxicity. For understanding and managing precious natural resources, mathematical models are increasingly being used. This paper describes a dynamic macroscopic numerical model for heavy metal transport and its uptake by vegetables in the root zone. The model is applied for simulating cadmium uptake by radish (Raphanus sativus), carrot (Daucos carota), spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and cabbage (Brassica oleracea) by using measured field data. The governing non-linear partial differential equations are solved numerically by an implicit finite difference method using Picard’s iterative technique and the source code is written in MATLAB.