SREL Reprint #1967

The availability of Cd and Zn to cereal crops grown in soil amended with Cd or Zn carbonate

Anna Chlopecka

The University of Georgia, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802, USA

Abstract: The cereal crops barley (Hordeum vulgare L), maize (Zea mays L.) and wheat (Triticum vulgare L.) were cultivated in a pot experiment on a sandy soil treated with increasing doses of Cd as CdCO3 (reagent salt) or Zn as ZnCO3 (smithsonite mineral), added separately. The metals were added in the following concentrations: 5, 10, 50 µg Cd g-1; and 150, 300, 1500 µg Zn g-1. Sequential extraction was used to determine the various metal forms in the soil and assess changes with increasing dosage and at harvest time. Neither Cd nor Zn adversely affected the yield of barley during the first year presumably since there were only low levels of bioavailable metal forms of the in the soil. At high doses of Cd and Zn, however, the yield of maize was substantially reduced. Wheat yield was adversely affected by high doses of Zn, but the effect was much less pronounced with Cd. While the residual forms of both metals predominate in the control soil, the exchangeable forms and to some extent the carbonate forms, predominate in the metal spiked soil. The soil exchangeable forms of the metals were correlated with their levels in plant tissues for the three crops tested. This study enhances our understanding of how the industrial pollutants Cd and Zn behave in the soil and become available to plants.

SREL Reprint #1967

Chlopecka, A. 1994. The availability of Cd and Zn to cereal crops grown in soil amended with Cd or Zn carbonate. pp. 475-485 In: D. C. Adriano, Z.-S. Chen, and S.-S. Yang. (Eds.). Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements. Science and Technology Letters, Northwood, UK.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).