Fate, Transport and Effect of Trace Elements in Plants and Agroecosystems

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil and Plant Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2021) | Viewed by 13610

Special Issue Editors

Department of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Sciences (DOCPAS), University of Ferrara, Via Borsari, 46, 44121 Ferrara, Italy
Interests: agricultural and soil sciences; agricultural chemistry; biogeochemistry of trace elements; heavy metals assimilation; soil pollution; heavy metals bioaccessibility
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-Food and Forest Systems (DIBAF), University of Tuscia, Via San Camillo de Lellis snc, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Interests: environmental science; agricultural and soil sciences; plant's responses to abiotic stresses; bioavailability and bioaccessibility of trace elements
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nutrient uptake is a basic requirement for plant biomass production. Well-balanced nutrient availability in the soil is crucial to plant physiology and development. The amount and composition of available nutrients and plants’ uptake vary by soil physical, chemical, and biological components. Anthropogenic processes in agroecosystems are often responsible for soil nutrient contents, due to the agronomic techniques and inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, organic manures, etc.) applied.

Different trace elements (Mn, Fe, B, etc.) are micronutrients essential to plant growth. If in high concentrations, some of these elements (e.g., As) are toxic to living organisms and are often considered as contaminants. The anthropic inputs and activities and the agronomic techniques applied on farms can determine the increase of trace elements in the soil becoming contaminated. However, trace elements can also be naturally present in the agroecosystem’s soil due to its parent materials.

Please share your success stories from research in irrigated regions around the world in this Special Issue. Submissions on the following topics (but not limited to these) are invited:

  1. Behavior of trace elements in the plantsoil system, chemical processes involved in the transformation, and processes controlling the bioavailability and mobility of trace elements in soils.
  2. Uptake, translocation, and transformation of trace elements in crop plantsoilmicrobe systems, linking with food nutrition and contaminants as it relates to nutrition.
  3. Bioavailability, phytoavailability, bioaccessibility, and risk assessment of essential and non-essential elements in agrifood and soil.
  4. Focus on the balance of trace elements in an agroecosystem, elaboration of soil chemical and biochemical parameters that can be used to diagnose soil contamination with or deficiency in trace elements, and quantification of trace metal transport from an agroecosystem to the environment.
  5. Biotechnology and nanotechnology to regulate trace elements’ behavior in the plantsoil system with emerging solutions for the global food crisis.
  6. New methodologies including advanced spectroscopic techniques for characterizing chemical forms and the bioavailability of trace elements in agricultural soils.
  7. Soil trace elements as affected by climate change.
  8. The contribution of agronomic techniques and anthropogenic activities to soil trace element contents.

Prof. Silvia Rita Stazi
Prof. Roberto Mancinelli
Dr. Rosita Marabottini
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • bioavailability
  • phytoavailability
  • bioaccessibility
  • balance of trace elements
  • agronomic techniques

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 2373 KiB  
Article
Phytoavailability of Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Tl and Zn in Arable Crop Systems Amended for 13 to 15 Years with Organic Waste Products
by Aurélia Marcelline Michaud, Valérie Sappin-Didier, Philippe Cambier, Christophe Nguyen, Noémie Janot, Denis Montenach, Lana Filipovic, Valentin Deltreil and Sabine Houot
Agronomy 2021, 11(4), 664; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11040664 - 31 Mar 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1778
Abstract
Repeated applications of organic waste products (OWP) are a source of trace elements (TE) inputs to agricultural topsoils. The present study aimed at (i) assessing the effects of repeated OWP inputs on the chemical properties of topsoils in two long-term field experiments (13 [...] Read more.
Repeated applications of organic waste products (OWP) are a source of trace elements (TE) inputs to agricultural topsoils. The present study aimed at (i) assessing the effects of repeated OWP inputs on the chemical properties of topsoils in two long-term field experiments (13 and 15 years; calcareous and non-calcareous soils), (ii) evaluating TE phytoavailability and their transfer to grain (winter wheat and maize) and (iii) identifying the underlying factors causing alterations of TE phytoavailability. In both field experiments, receiving compliant or slightly high doses of OWP in compliance with regulations, OWP and soil physicochemical properties and TE concentrations in soils and grains were determined. In situ phytoavailability of TE was assessed at two juvenile crop growth stages by analyzing TE concentrations in shoot plantlets. Depending on the OWP input amount, results showed that compared to the soil receiving no organic amendment, repeated OWP inputs significantly increased soil organic carbon content, pH, cation exchange capacity, total soil Cu, Mo and Zn concentration and the phytoavailability of Mo, while the phytoavailability of Cd, Mn, Ni and Tl was significantly reduced. No notable effect was observed for Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb and Zn phytoavailability. Statistical approaches suggested that due to the repeated OWP applications, increased soil organic carbon content and pH, were likely responsible for decreased TE phytoavailability (e.g., Cd). Full article
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20 pages, 5789 KiB  
Article
Influence of Soil Properties and Initial Concentration on the Fractionation of Nickel, Zinc, Copper and Lead in Soils Derived from Different Parent Materials
by Claudia Campillo-Cora, Laura Rodríguez-González, Manuel Arias-Estévez, David Fernández-Calviño and Diego Soto-Gómez
Agronomy 2021, 11(2), 301; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11020301 - 09 Feb 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2504
Abstract
Different fractions of Ni, Zn, Cu and Pb were determined in metal-spiked forest soils derived from four parent materials using three extractants (H2O, CaCl2 and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA)). It is important to determine how parent materials and soil properties affect [...] Read more.
Different fractions of Ni, Zn, Cu and Pb were determined in metal-spiked forest soils derived from four parent materials using three extractants (H2O, CaCl2 and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA)). It is important to determine how parent materials and soil properties affect the retention of these metals in order to predict their behavior and act accordingly in the event of accidental spillage, for example. The extraction of fractions was not sequential (before carrying out the extractions, the soil samples were divided into three parts), so the CaCl2 fraction also included the H2O one, and the DTPA fraction contained the other two. With the results, we developed models to predict the extraction of each fraction employing the physicochemical characteristics of the soil (e.g., pH, organic matter content and texture values) and the amount of metal added. The objective of this work was to determine how the properties of the soil would influence the fractioning of the metals considered, and through these characteristics create models to predict the behavior of each metal fraction. We found correlations between the different fractions of Ni and Zn, suggesting that there are soil properties that condition the retention of both metals. Pb and Cu showed different behavior than Zn or Ni, since the proportions extracted by H2O and CaCl2 were much lower. Regarding the DTPA fraction, unlike the case of Ni or Zn, the extraction of Cu and Pb was more homogeneous; they did not show great variation in different soils, even when considering the results of extraction in limestone soils. This may be due to the fact that the soil properties do not exert an important effect on their availability, or these two metals are considerably sensitive to the effect of pH, and no differences were observed because the extraction of the DTPA fraction was conducted with a buffered solution. For each fraction of metal used, we obtained a model with R2 always greater than 0.65. Considering these results, we can conclude that it is possible to predict Zn, Ni, Cu and Pb availability in soils developed on different parent materials. This can be achieved by identifying some basic soil characteristics and applying the developed equations. Full article
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16 pages, 2541 KiB  
Article
Availability of Nickel in Soil Evaluated by Various Chemical Extractants and Plant Accumulation
by Monika Jakubus and Małgorzata Graczyk
Agronomy 2020, 10(11), 1805; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10111805 - 17 Nov 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3535
Abstract
This work presents quantitative changes of nickel in soil and plants under the influence of compost and fly ash. The research was carried out in a 3-year experiment on medium soil fertilised with compost or fly ash. The plants: narrow leaf lupine ( [...] Read more.
This work presents quantitative changes of nickel in soil and plants under the influence of compost and fly ash. The research was carried out in a 3-year experiment on medium soil fertilised with compost or fly ash. The plants: narrow leaf lupine (Lupinus angustifolius L.), camelina (Camelina sativa L.), and oat (Avena sativa L.) were planted in consecutive years. The soil from the experiment was subjected to extraction by sequential analysis with the Community Bureau of Reference (BCR) method, and single extractions using 1 mol·dm−3 HCl and DTPA solutions, obtaining the amount of nickel in various combinations with the soil solid phase. Total contents of the metal in soil and cultivated plants were determined. On the basis of Ni contents in the soil and cultivated plants, the bioconcentration factors and the risk assessment code were calculated. The type of amendments had a significant impact on the nickel content in lupine, for camelina and oat was the greatest in the control conditions. The differences between the amounts of Ni determined for bioconcentration factors were significant and depended on the amendments and nickel obtained by different methods. Regardless of the experimental conditions, the amount of Ni in the exchangeable bonds (Fr. I) had the greatest impact on the content of Ni in lupine and oat, whereas NiDTPA in the case of camelina. Full article
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21 pages, 1242 KiB  
Article
Specific Adsorption of Heavy Metals in Soils: Individual and Competitive Experiments
by Claudia Campillo-Cora, Manuel Conde-Cid, Manuel Arias-Estévez, David Fernández-Calviño and Flora Alonso-Vega
Agronomy 2020, 10(8), 1113; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10081113 - 01 Aug 2020
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 5126
Abstract
The partitioning between the soil solid phase and the soil solution determines the mobility of pollutants like heavy metals. If nonspecific sorption takes place, the reactions are easily reversible and heavy metals are released to soil solution increasing the probability of leaching through [...] Read more.
The partitioning between the soil solid phase and the soil solution determines the mobility of pollutants like heavy metals. If nonspecific sorption takes place, the reactions are easily reversible and heavy metals are released to soil solution increasing the probability of leaching through soil profile. Mobility and leaching are also favoured if other metals are in the system and competition for specific adsorption sites takes place. In this study, desorption equilibrium experiments were conducted after adsorption ones. The specific adsorption was evaluated through the amounts of the still adsorbed Cu, Pb, Cr, Ni and Zn after desorption experiments in ten different soils. In addition, competition adsorption and desorption binary experiments were conducted for evaluating the metal competition in three of the soils. Pb and Cu are the metals adsorbed and retained in higher amounts in all the studied soils. In slightly neutral soils, Cr is retained in lesser amounts while in acidic soils Zn is the metal less retained. Results showed that despite the high and variable amounts of organic matter in the soils, soil pH is the most important variable in neutral soils. In acidic soils, soil properties different than pH play important roles and specific sorption of Pb is related to the cationic exchange capacity of the soils while that of Zn to the clay content. Instead, the release of Cu during desorption experiments is probably due to the more soluble organic fraction of the soils. The individual retention of Cu, Zn, Ni and Pb is higher than when they are in competition, except if Cr is present. In this case, the amount of those four metals and that of Cr increased. Therefore, the presence of Cr together with cationic heavy metals favoured the adsorption of those metals in multi-metal polluted areas. Specific adsorption is also important during competition as soil affinities increase during competition experiments. Full article
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