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Addition of Vermicompost to Heavy Metal-Contaminated Soil Increases the Ability of Black Oat (Avena strigosa Schreb) Plants to Remove Cd, Cr, and Pb

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Abstract

The contamination of soil with heavy metals is a serious agricultural issue. The presence of foods contaminated with heavy metals in the human diet can cause health damages. Metal phytoextraction processes remove soil contaminants through plant absorption; however, plants display different responses to the metal contamination of the soil. Thus, the purposes of this paper were to determine cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), and lead (Pb) immobilization in soil mixed with different amounts of stabilized vermicompost (obtained by earthworm composting) and verify if this vermicompost helps in the removal of heavy metal through the phytoextraction technique with black oat (Avena strigosa Schreb cv IAPAR 61) plants. The addition of a high quantity of vermicompost (50, 75, and 100%) to the soil presents similar results to the immobilization of Cd, Cr, and Pb, and a similar trend was observed in lower quantities (0 and 25%) of vermicompost. The addition of vermicompost improves the growth of black oat plants, but only the treatment with 25% of vermicompost showed promising results in the absorption of Cr and Pb, and the treatment with 50% in the absorption of Cd. Finally, we suggest that “IAPAR 61” black oat cultivar is efficient Cd, Cr, and Pb accumulators. However, heavy metal remained mostly in the root, indicating that root-to-shoot translocation was not efficient, hindering its application for phytoremediation strategies.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Centro Universitário UNIVATES for the financial support and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES/Brazil) for the grant and fellowships.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biotecnologia (PPGBiotec), Centro Universitário UNIVATES, Lajeado, RS, Brazil

      Lucélia Hoehne, Christina V. S. de Lima & Camille E. Granada

    2. Centro de Ciências Exatas e Tecnológicas (CETEC), Centro Universitário UNIVATES, Lajeado, RS, Brazil

      Lucélia Hoehne, Maira C. Martini, Taciélen Altmayer, Débora T. Brietzke, Jordana Finatto & Tamara E. Gonçalves

    3. Centro de Gestão Organizacional (CGO), Centro Universitário UNIVATES, Lajeado, RS, Brazil

      Camille E. Granada

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    1. Lucélia Hoehne
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    Correspondence to Camille E. Granada.

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    Lucélia Hoehne and Christina V. S. de Lima contributed equally to this work.

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    Hoehne, L., de Lima, C.V.S., Martini, M.C. et al. Addition of Vermicompost to Heavy Metal-Contaminated Soil Increases the Ability of Black Oat (Avena strigosa Schreb) Plants to Remove Cd, Cr, and Pb. Water Air Soil Pollut 227, 443 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-016-3142-2

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