Abstract
Rare earth elements are applied in China to improve crop production, and the distribution patterns of individual rare earth elements in native plants have widely been reported. But our knowledge is still limited about the dose-dependent accumulation of individual rare earth elements in agricultural crops after application of rare earth elements. Effects of lanthanum and mixtures of rare earth elements were studied in pot experiments on the accumulation of individual rare earth elements in maize plants. All plant samples were divided into plant tops and roots. On addition of mixtures of rare earth elements and lanthanum to the soil, a significant dose-dependent accumulation of individual rare earth element(s) was found in the roots and in the plant tops. Application of mixtures of rare earth elements at >10 mg kg−1 soil, resulted in a significant increase in contents of light rare earth elements in the roots, and at a dose of 50 mg kg−1 soil, a similar phenomenon was found in the plant tops. When mixtures of rare earth elements were replaced by lanthanum alone, at a dose higher than 10 mg La kg−1 soil, a significant increase in La content occurred in the roots and in the plant tops. The content ratio of La to Ce in maize plants appeared to increase as the application doses of rare earth element(s) increased. At a highest dose (50 mg kg−1soil), the transport of the absorbed La from the roots to the plant tops might be substantially reduced after treatment with lanthanum alone, compared with mixtures of rare earth elements. Increasing the application doses of rare earth element(s) appeared to cause a positive Gd and negative Ce anomaly in the roots and in the plant tops, and the anomaly was more obvious in the plant tops than in the roots. The results indicated that the Gd and Ce anomaly in corns might be considered as important parameters for the safety assessment of agricultural application of rare earth elements.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adrian P J, Wall F and Williams C T 1996 Rare Earth Minerals: Chemistry, Origin and Ore Deposits. Chapman & Hall, UK. 129 pp.
Brookins D G 1989 Aqueous geochemistry of rare earth elements. In Geochemistry and Mineralogy of Rare Earth Elements. Eds. Lipin B R and G A McKay. pp. 201–226. Mineralogical Society of America, Washington.
Brown P H, Rathjen A H, Graham R D and Tribe D E 1990 Rare Earth Elements in Biological Systems. In Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths, Vol 13. Eds. Gschneidner K A Jr and L Eyring. pp. 423–452. North-Holland, Amsterdam.
Chang J 1991 Effects of lanthanum on the permeability of root plasmalemma and the absorption and accumulation of nutrients in rice and wheat. Plant Physiol. Commun. 27, 17–21.
Diatloff E, Asher C J and Smith F W 1996 Concentration of rare earth elements in some Australian soils. Aust. J. Soil Res. 34, 735–747.
Diatloff E, Smith F W and Asher C J 1995 Rare earth elements and plant growth: I. Effects of lanthanum and cerium on root elongation of corn and mungbean. J. Plant Nutr. 18, 1963–1976.
Evensen N M, Hamilton P J and O'Nions R K 1978 Rare earth abundances in chondritic meteorites. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 42, 1199–1212.
Fu FengFu, Akagi T, Yabuki S and Iwaki M 2001 The variation of REE (rare earth elements) patterns in soil-grown plants: a new proxy for the source of rare earth elements and silicon in plants. Plant Soil 235, 53–64.
Henke G 1977 Activation analysis of rare earth elements in opium and cannabis samples. J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem. 39, 69–83.
Ichihashi H, Morita H and Tatsukawa R 1992 Rare earth elements in naturally grown plants in relation to their variation in soils. Environ. Pollut. 76, 157–162.
John R D, Owen B, Andrew F, Louise M G, Malcolm S C, Peter W and Mark C 1998 Atomic spectrometry update-environmental analysis. J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 13, 1–56.
Knappe A, Fritz B, Pekdeger A, Moller P, Dulski P and Hubberter H W 2001 Using the REE gadolinium as a new tracer for sewage influence in aqueous urban systems. In Water-Rock Interaction, Vol. 1–2. Ed. Cidu R. pp. 1111–1114. AA Balkema, Rotterdam.
Kim H T 1995 Soil Sampling, Preparation and Analysis. Marcel Dekker, New York. 115 pp.
Lauchli A and Bieleski R L 1983 Inorganic Plant Nutrition. Spring-Verlag, Berlin. 23 pp.
Miekeley N, Casartelli E A and Dotto R M 1994 Concentration levels of rare earth elements and thorium in plants from the Morro do Ferro environment. J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem. 182, 75–84.
Nagahashi G, Thomson W W and Leonard R T 1974 The Casparian strip as a barrier to the movement of lanthanum in corn roots. Science 183, 670–671.
Ni B F, Tian W Z, Nie H N, Wang P S and He G K 1999 Study on air pollution in Beijing's major industrial areas using multielements in biomonitors and NAA techniques. Biol. Trace Elem. Res. 71/72, 267–272.
Ni G 1995 Bioinorganic Chemistry of Rare Earth Elements. Science Press, Beijing. 58 pp.
Sun J, Zhao H and Wang Y 1994 Study of the contents of trace rare earth elements and their distribution in wheat and rice samples. J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem. 179, 377–383.
Wang Y Q, Sun J X, Chen H M and Guo F Q 1997 Determination of the contents and distribution characteristics of REE in natural plants by NAA. J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem. 219, 99–103.
Wang Z, Liu D F, Lu P and Wang C X 2001 Accumulation of rare earth elements in corn after agricultural application. J. Environ. Qual. 30, 37–45.
Wen H Y, Peng R Z and Chen X W 2000 Application of rare earth compound fertilizer in some crops in central Yunnan. Chinese Rare Earths 21, 50–54.
Wyttenbach A, Furrer V, Schleppi P and Tobler L 1998 Rare earth elements in soil and in soil-grown plants. Plant Soil 199, 267–273.
Xu X K and Wang Z J 2001 Effect of lanthanum and mixtures of rare earths on ammonium oxidation and mineralization of nitrogen in soil. Eur. J. Soil Sci. 52, 323–330.
Xu X K, Wang Z J, Wang Y S and Inubushi K 2003 Urea hydrolysis and inorganic-N in a luvisol after application of fertilizer containing rare-earth elements. Aust. J. Soil Res. 41(4) (in press)
Xu X K, Zhu W Z, Wang Z J and Witkamp G J 2002 Distributions of rare earths and heavy metals in field-grown maize after application of rare earth-containing fertilizer. Sci. Total Environ. 293, 97–105.
Yu Z and Chen M 1995 Rare Earth Elements and their Application. Metallurgical Industry Press, Beijing. 55 p.
Zhang H L, Zhang C G, Zhao Z Q, Ma J H, Li X Q and Li L 2002 Effects of La3+ on H+ transmembrane gradient and membrane potential in rice seedling roots. J. Chin. Rare Earth Soc. 20, 164–165
Zhu W 1999 Advanced Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Rare Earth Elements: Environmental Application. Ph Dissertation. Technical University of Delft, AA Balkema Publishers, Rotterdam. 60 pp.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Xu, X., Zhu, W., Wang, Z. et al. Accumulation of rare earth elements in maize plants (Zea mays L.) after application of mixtures of rare earth elements and lanthanum. Plant and Soil 252, 267–277 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024715523670
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024715523670