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Effects of alternate wetting and drying on oxyanion-forming and cationic trace elements in rice paddy soils: impacts on arsenic, cadmium, and micronutrients in rice

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Abstract

Rice is a global dietary staple and its traditional cultivation under flooded soil conditions leads to accumulation of arsenic (As) in rice grains. Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) is a widely advocated water management practice to achieve lower As concentrations in rice, water savings, and decreased methane emissions. It is not yet clear whether AWD leads to tradeoffs between concentrations of As and micronutrient elements (e.g., zinc, manganese, molybdenum) in rice grain. We analyzed pore water chemistry and rice grain composition data from a field experiment conducted in Arkansas, USA, in 2017 and 2018 to test the hypothesis that AWD will have diverging effects on oxyanion-forming (arsenic, molybdenum) vs. cationic (cadmium, zinc, manganese, copper) trace elements. This was hypothesized to occur via decreases in soil pH and/or precipitation of iron oxide minerals during oxidizing conditions under AWD. Solubility of all trace elements, except zinc, increased in more reducing conditions. Consistent with our hypothesis, AWD tended to increase grain concentrations of cationic elements while decreasing grain concentrations of oxyanionic elements. Decreases in total As in rice grains under AWD were mainly driven by changes in dimethylarsinic concentrations, with negligible changes in inorganic As. Linear mixed-effects modeling showed that effects of AWD on grain composition were more significant in 2017 compared to 2018. These differences may be related to the timing of dry-downs in the developmental stage of rice plants, with dry-downs during the heading stage of rice development leading to larger impacts on grain composition of certain elements. We also observed significant interannual variability in grain elemental composition from continuously-flooded fields and postulate the warmer temperatures in 2018 may have played a role in these differences.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the grant USDA-NIFA-2018-67019-27796 and an NSF Earth Science Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to S. Maguffin (award number 1625317). The authors thank T. Sookaserm and L. Sells (DBNRRC, USDA-ARS) for field assistance and M. Thomas from the Cornell Statistical Consulting Unit for assistance with linear mixed effects modeling. Pore water samples were analyzed at the Dartmouth Trace Element Core Facility, which was established by grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Superfund Research Program (P42ES007373) and the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.

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National Institute of Food and Agriculture,2018-67019-27796,2018-67019-27796.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Lena Abu-Ali & Matthew C. Reid

  2. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, SUNY-Oneonta, Oneonta, NY, USA

    Scott C. Maguffin

  3. USDA-ARS, Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center, Stuttgart, AR, USA

    Jai S. Rohila & Anna M. McClung

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  1. Lena Abu-Ali
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L.A-A and SCM performed research under supervision of MCR, AM, and JR, LA-A and MCR wrote the first draft of the manuscript text and AM and JR contributed to the final draft of the manuscript text. SCM and MCR acquired research funding and designed research with AM and JR.

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Correspondence to Matthew C. Reid.

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Abu-Ali, L., Maguffin, S.C., Rohila, J.S. et al. Effects of alternate wetting and drying on oxyanion-forming and cationic trace elements in rice paddy soils: impacts on arsenic, cadmium, and micronutrients in rice. Environ Geochem Health 45, 8135–8151 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-023-01702-9

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