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Investigating the potential influence of biochar and traditional organic amendments on the bioavailability and transfer of Cd in the soil–plant system

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Abstract

In this paper biochar (BC) and traditional soil amendments, including press mud (PrM), farm manure (FM), compost (Cmp), poultry manure (PM) and sewage sludge (SS), were evaluated as carbon sources (20 g kg−1 organic carbon) to assess their ability to store soil organic carbon as well as their effects on the bioavailability, transfer and immobilization of Cd in contaminated soil. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was grown on unamended and amended soil (at 2 % organic carbon basis) in a greenhouse experiment and the soil characteristics, AB-DTPA extractable Cd and metal uptake were determined. The influence of the applied organic carbon amendments on the soil properties and accumulation of Cd was evaluated and compared to unamended soil. All of the amendments increased the soil OC significantly with the highest value (1.2 %) with BC followed by PrM (0.98 %) and Cmp (0.86 %). The maximum decrease in the AB-DTPA extractable Cd (43.82 %) was recorded with the BC amendment followed by Cmp (18.16 %), while FM and PrM amendments increased the Cd availability up to 19.92 and 4.45 %, respectively. The uptake of Cd by Triticum aestivum L. was increased with all of the amendments except for BC and Cmp, which showed significant decreases, and the maximum transfer factor was found in SS followed by PrM, PM and FM. The soil organic carbon (OC), cation exchange capacity (CEC) and pH were negatively correlated with the AB-DTPA extractable Cd in post-experiment soil. The results obtained from this experiment suggest that organic carbon from biochar (BC) can be used to increase the soil OC stock, and it is also effective for the in situ immobilization/remediation of Cd, thus improving the physico-chemical properties of soil and leading to increased plant growth.

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Acknowledgments

This research work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41373110) and Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC). The Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) and The World Academy of Science (TWAS) are also greatly acknowledged for providing the CAS-TWAS President fellowship (CAS-TWAS No. 2014-179). We also greatly appreciate the thoughtful comments and valuable suggestions from anonymous reviewers for the improvement of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, People’s Republic of China

    Balal Yousaf, Guijian Liu & Ruwei Wang

  2. Soil, Water and Environmental Chemistry Laboratory, Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan

    Balal Yousaf, Muhammad Zia-ur-Rehman & Ghulam Murtaza

  3. Microelement Research Center, College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, People’s Republic of China

    Muhammad Shahid Rizwan & Muhammad Imtiaz

  4. School of Resource and Environment, Anhui Agriculture University, Hefei, 230026, People’s Republic of China

    Awais Shakoor

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  1. Balal Yousaf
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Correspondence to Guijian Liu.

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Yousaf, B., Liu, G., Wang, R. et al. Investigating the potential influence of biochar and traditional organic amendments on the bioavailability and transfer of Cd in the soil–plant system. Environ Earth Sci 75, 374 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-5285-2

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