fluoride, groundwater 2025 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/article Faculty of Agriculture, University of East Sarajevo, Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina Environmental behavior and tracer potential of fluoride in groundwater https://unilib.phaidrabg.rs/o:8508 ISBN: 978-99976-070-5-8 Proceedings - XVI International Scientific Agricultural Symposium “Agrosym 2025” Jahorina, October 2-5, 2025, Bosnia and Herzegovina startpage: 634 endpage: 638 All rights reserved Understanding tracer behavior in groundwater is crucial for accurately interpreting flow dynamics, residence times, and hydrogeochemical processes, thereby supporting effective aquifer recharge and potential pollution sources. Fluoride (F-) in groundwater is a significant geochemical constituent which mobility and distribution are governed by a range of hydrogeochemical factors. This paper reviews the behavior of fluoride in groundwater and evaluates its potential as an environmental tracer. Although fluoride in groundwater predominantly occurs because of natural geochemical processes, mainly the dissolution of Fbearing minerals such as fluorite and apatite, it can also originate from anthropogenic sources. These include industrial emissions, phosphate fertilizer application, and mining or processing of phosphate and fluorite ores, particularly in oxic shallow aquifers near contaminated sites. It is generally not redox-sensitive, remaining as fluoride across a range of redox conditions. Key controls on fluoride concentrations include pH, alkalinity, calcium availability, mineralogy, and the presence of competitive anions like bicarbonate and phosphate. Owing to its conservative behavior under many conditions, fluoride has been used as a natural tracer to infer groundwater origin. The conducted literature review concludes that fluoride, though usually considered as a contaminant of health concern, can serve as an informative geochemical tracer in hydrogeology when its controlling factors are known and examined. application/pdf 1520596 bytes Perović, Marija Mitrović, Tatjana