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Suitability of a municipal solid waste as organic amendment for agricultural and metal(loid)-contaminated soils: effects on soil properties, plant growth and metal(loid) allocation in Zea mays L.

  • Soils, Sec 3 • Remediation and Management of Contaminated or Degraded Lands • Research Article
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Abstract

Purpose

The use of municipal solid wastes (MSWs) as a low-cost source of organic matter for soils should be considered after discarding the environmental risks related to their metal(loid) load. The goal of this work was to assess the employment of a MSW as an organic amendment in two types of soil (an agricultural soil, A, and a metal(loid)-enriched mine tailings soil, T) attending to changes in soil properties and in plant growth, nutrition and metal(loid) translocation from roots to aerial parts of Zea mays L. (stalk, leaves, tassel, husk, cob and kernel).

Materials and methods

After a comprehensive characterisation of each soil treatment (A, A + MSW, T, T + MSW), a pot-designed experiment was carried out. Soil solution was monthly monitored throughout the experiment, and metal(loid) concentrations were measured.

Results and discussion

The MSW improved some fertility-related parameters in both soils, A and T: increased total and dissolved organic carbon, total nitrogen and soil microbiology. However, an increase in 0.01 M CaCl2-extractable metal(loid) concentration was also observed. No differences in dry biomass were found between amended and not amended treatments. A fractionation of metal(loid) concentrations among plant organs occurred. For instance, the highest Cu and Pb concentrations were found in roots, while for Zn occurred in the stalk and the cob. The amended treatments favoured the accumulation of Mn in all plant organs. Kernels showed in general the lowest metal(loid) concentrations.

Conclusions

The addition of municipal solid wastes as organic amendment could be a suitable tool to increase soil fertility. However, due to the high metal(loid) content of this particular MSW, its use on agricultural soils would not be appropriate. By other hand, along with the improvement of soil fertility, the MSW was useful to promote plant development in the mine tailings soil which should be then considered as a potential tool to promote plant establishment in those metal(loid)-impacted soils.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support for this research was provided by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain and FEDER (project CTM2011-23958) and Fundación Séneca de la Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia (project 15296/PI/10).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología Agraria, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agronómica, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Paseo Alfonso XIII, 48, 30203, Cartagena, Spain

    Isabel Párraga-Aguado, Pedro Alcoba-Gómez & Héctor M. Conesa

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  1. Isabel Párraga-Aguado
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  2. Pedro Alcoba-Gómez
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  3. Héctor M. Conesa
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Correspondence to Isabel Párraga-Aguado.

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Responsible editor: Yongtao Li

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Párraga-Aguado, I., Alcoba-Gómez, P. & Conesa, H.M. Suitability of a municipal solid waste as organic amendment for agricultural and metal(loid)-contaminated soils: effects on soil properties, plant growth and metal(loid) allocation in Zea mays L.. J Soils Sediments 17, 2469–2480 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-017-1699-z

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