Abstract
Purpose
Nitrogen is widely used in agricultural production, including in arsenic-contaminated soil. However, there is a lack of systematic studies on the arsenic (As) dynamics in soil porewater–root surface–rice system after applying different nitrogen fertilizers to As-contaminated soil.
Materials and methods
Three treatments (CK, Nitrate-N, and Ammonium-N) were applied before rice planting to investigate the effect of nitrogen forms on arsenic accumulation in brown rice and its dynamics in soil-plant system.
Results and discussion
Compared to Nitrate-N and CK treatments, Ammonium-N treatment increased rice biomass and yield. Compared with CK treatment (0.12 and 4.48 mg/kg), Ammonium-N treatment (0.08 and 2.71 mg/kg) reduced the As concentrations and Nitrate-N treatment (0.18 and 6.20 mg/kg) increased the As concentrations in brown rice and shoots. Nitrogen application reduced Fe plaques concentration on roots, but Ammonium-N treatment increased the total As accumulation in Fe plaques. In soil porewater, Nitrate-N treatment reduced the concentration of As (III) in the first month (5.2–47.0 μg/L) but increased its concentration in the last month (137.6–183.1 μg/L). However, the concentration of As (III) in Ammonium-N treatment (58.5–168.6 μg/L) was similar to that in CK treatment (72.8–138.8 μg/L) in porewater.
Conclusions
The application of Nitrate-N caused the decrease of As in porewater during the seedling stage; however, the As concentration in rice grains was increased due to the increase of As (III) in porewater during the ripening stage. The application of Ammonium-N reduced the As concentration in rice tissues by increasing biomass and accumulating more As in Fe plaques.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Xiongfei Rao (Tobacco Research Institute of Hubei Province, Wuhan, China) for checking and editing the manuscript.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41771270) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0800805).
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Highlights
(1) As concentration in brown rice was 48.8% lower in Ammonium-N than Nitrate-N treatments.
(2) Nitrate-N only reduced the As (III) concentration in porewater during seedling stage.
(3) Nitrate-N increased the exposure risk of As to roots during ripening stage.
(4) Ammonium increased biomass of rice, diluted the As concentration in brown rice.
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Zhang, X., Yang, Y., Fu, Q. et al. Comparing effects of ammonium and nitrate nitrogen on arsenic accumulation in brown rice and its dynamics in soil-plant system. J Soils Sediments 21, 2650–2658 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-021-02938-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-021-02938-7