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Effects of soil amendments on antimony uptake by wheat

  • POTENTIALLY HARMFUL ELEMENTS IN SOIL-PLANT INTERACTIONS
  • Published:
Journal of Soils and Sediments Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Environmental chemistry of antimony (Sb) is still largely unknown. Many questions remain about its availability to plants and effects of fertilizers on mobility of Sb in the rhizosphere soil. In this work, we focused on the following problems: (1) uptake of Sb by wheat seedlings grown in soil enriched with this metalloid and (2) impact of soil amendments on the plant growth, Sb uptake from soil, and its transfer from roots to upper plant parts.

Materials and methods

To obtain further information on the possible transfer of Sb into plants, greenhouse pot experiments were carried out. Soil was spiked with 15 mg kg−1 of Sb and amended with either chicken manure or natural growth stimulator Energen. Wheat Triticum aestivum L. seedlings were grown in the soil during 17 days. Plants together with rhizosphere soil were collected several times in the course of the experiment. The ICP-OES and ICP-MS techniques were applied to determine the concentrations of macro- and trace elements in the plant and soil material.

Results and discussion

Growth of wheat seedlings in Sb-spiked soil resulted in Sb accumulation in roots and leaves of the plants. Energen and especially chicken manure were capable of stimulating transfer of Sb to more mobile and, as a consequence, more available to the plants form, thus enhancing both uptake of Sb from soil and its transfer from roots to upper plant parts. The accumulation of Sb by plants led to a decrease of Sb concentration in the rhizosphere soil with time, and the most significant decrease was observed after amendment of soil with fertilizers.

Conclusions

Fertilizers may be used to increase phytoextraction of Sb and its removal from contaminated soils. However, such an amendment of soil should be done with caution in order to exclude or at least reduce the negative effects on plants.

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Acknowledgments

Irina Shtangeeva acknowledges financial support from the Academy of Finland. The authors are grateful to Seija Liikanen and Päivi Vesala (University of Oulu, Department of Chemistry) for helping with the sample analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemical Department, St. Petersburg University, Universitetskaya nab. 7/9, 199034, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Irina Shtangeeva

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 3000, 90014, Oulu, Finland

    Matti Niemelä & Paavo Perämäki

Authors
  1. Irina Shtangeeva
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  2. Matti Niemelä
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  3. Paavo Perämäki
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Irina Shtangeeva.

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Responsible editor: Jaume Bech

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Shtangeeva, I., Niemelä, M. & Perämäki, P. Effects of soil amendments on antimony uptake by wheat. J Soils Sediments 14, 679–686 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-013-0761-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-013-0761-8

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