SREL Reprint #2064

Forms of Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn in soil and their uptake by cereal crops when applied jointly as carbonates

Anna Chlopecka

Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30606, USA

Abstract: The cereal crops (barley - Hordeum vulgare L., maize - Zea mays L., wheat - Triticum vulgare L.) were grown in a greenhouse using a sandy soil type treated with various doses of cadmium carbonate (salt), copper carbonate (malachite), lead carbonate (cerussite), and zinc carbonate (smithsonite), added jointly. The following levels of these metals were used: Cd — 5, 10, 50 µg g -1 soil; Cu and Pb — 50, 100, 500 µg g -1 soil; Zn — 150, 300, 1500 µg g -1 soil. Sequential extraction was adopted to partition the metals into five operationally-defined fractions: exchangeable, carbonate, Fe-Mn oxides, organic, and residual. The residual was the most abundant fraction in the untreated (control) soil for all the metals studied (50 to 60% of the total metal content). The concentrations of exchangeable Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn were relatively low in untreated soil but increased (over the three year period) in treated soils for Cd, Zn, and Cu, whereas only small changes were observed for Pb. This experiment showed a significant increase in Cd, Zn, and Cu in tissue of plants grown on the treated soil, but a non-significant change in plant tissue with respect to Pb concentration.

SREL Reprint #2064

Chlopecka, A. 1996. Forms of Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn in soil and their uptake by cereal crops when applied jointly as carbonates. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 87:297-309.

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