Abstract
Selenium (Se), iron (Fe), and humic acid (HA) are beneficial fertilizers that inhibit cadmium (Cd) uptake in crops and are crucial for agricultural yields as well as human health. However, the joined effect of Se, Fe, and HA on Cd uptake in rice are still poorly understood. Therefore, a hydroponic culture experiment was established to evaluate the combined effect of Se (Se4+ or Se6+), Fe, and HA on the biomass, Cd uptake, and Cd translocation of/in rice seedlings. Compared to Se6+ application, Se4+ application in most treatments resulted in lower Cd translocations from roots to shoots, leading to a significant decrease in shoot Cd concentrations. Compared to the treatments with Se4+ or Fe2+ application, joined application of Se4+ and Fe2+ inhibited Cd uptake in shoots by decreasing Cd adsorption onto (iron plaque) and uptake by roots, and alleviating Cd translocation from root to shoot. Compared to the treatments with Se6+ or Fe2+ application, joined application of Se6+ and Fe2+ inhibited Cd uptake in shoots by sequestering (retaining) Cd onto root surface (iron plaque). HA inhibited Cd uptake in all treatments by decreasing the bioavailability of Cd in the nutrient solution through complexation. The simultaneous application of Se, Fe, and HA decreased the shoot Cd concentrations the most, followed by the combined application of two fertilizers and their individual application; the mean shoot Cd concentration in the Fe-SeIV-HA2 treatment was the lowest among all the treatments, at only 11.39 % of those in the control treatments. The 3-way ANOVA results indicated that the Cd concentrations in shoots were significantly affected by Se, Fe, HA, and certain of their interactions (Fe×Se and Se×HA) (p< 0.05). The above findings suggest that the joined application of Se, Fe, and HA ameliorated Cd uptake mainly by inhibiting Cd adsorption onto (iron plaque) and uptake by roots and the translocation from roots to shoots (Fe×Se4+), retaining (sequestering) Cd in iron plaque (Fe×Se6+), and decreasing Cd availability in nutrient solution (HA).
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Test Center of Zhejiang Institute, China University of Geosciences, for element analysis support.
Funding
This work has been jointly supported in part by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41872250), the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2019CFB235), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (Grant No. CUG170104; G1323520058), the funds of Science and Technology Research of Ankang City (AK2020FX01-9), the Young Science and Technology New Star project of Shaanxi Province (2021KJXX-98).
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Hongyu Zhang: conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, writing—original draft. Shuyun Xie: conceptualization, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition. Zhengyu Bao: formal analysis. Emmanuel John M. Carranza: writing—review and editing. Huan Tian: formal analysis. Changhua Wei: investigation.
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Highlights
(1) Joined application of Se, Fe, and HA inhibited shoot Cd concentrations by decreasing Cd migration.
(2) Se4+ decreased Cd uptake more effectively than Se6+ by inhibited Cd translocation in plant tissues.
(3) Iron plaque alleviated Cd uptake, but the mechanism is associated with the presence and species of Se.
(4) HA inhibited Cd uptake by reducing the bioavailability of Cd in the nutrient solution.
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Zhang, ., Xie, S., Bao, Z. et al. Synergistic inhibitory effect of selenium, iron, and humic acid on cadmium uptake in rice (Oryza sativa L.) seedlings in hydroponic culture. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 64652–64665 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15527-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15527-5