Abstract
Soil contaminants threaten global food security by posing threats to food safety through food chain pollution. Fly ash is a potential agent of soil contamination that contains heavy metals and hazardous pollutants. However, being rich in macro- and micronutrients that have direct beneficial effects on plant growth, fly ash has been recommended as a low-cost soil ameliorant in agriculture in countries of the Global South. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), ubiquitous in agricultural soils, enhance efficiency of plant nutrient uptake from soils but can equally increase uptake of toxic pollutants from fly ash ameliorated soils to edible crop tissues. We investigated AMF-mediated amplification of nutrient and heavy metal uptake from fly ash amended soils to shoots, roots and grains of barley. We used a microcosm-based experiment to analyse the impacts of fly ash amendments to soil in concentrations of 0 (control), 15, 30 or 50% respectively, on root colonization by AMF Rhizophagus irregularis and AMF-mediated transfer of N, P and heavy metals: Ni, Co, Pb and Cr to barley tissues. These concentrations of fly ash are equivalent to 0, 137, 275 and 458 t ha−1 respectively, in soil. Root AMF colonization correlated negatively with fly ash concentration and was not detected at 50% fly ash amendment. Shoots, roots and grains of mycorrhizal barley grown with 15, 30 and 50% fly ash amendments had significantly higher concentrations of Ni, Co, Pb and Cr compared to the control and their respective non-mycorrhizal counterparts. Presence of heavy metals in barley plants grown with fly ash amended soil and their increased AMF-mediated translocation to edible grains may significantly enhance the volume of heavy metals entering the human food chain. We recommend careful assessment of manipulation of agricultural soils with fly ash as heavy metal accumulation in agricultural soils and human tissues may cause irreversible damage.
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Claims 3
Claim · model-written summary
AMF root colonization declined as fly ash concentration rose and was undetectable at 50% fly ash.
- Taxon
- barley
.jpg?width=60)
Hordeum vulgaree1 - Treatment
- fly ash concentratione0
- Interactor
- AMFe0symbiont
- Outcome
- Root AMF colonizatione0
- Direction
- negativelye0
- Value
- 50%e0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
e0“Root AMF colonization correlated negatively with fly ash concentration and was not detected at 50% fly ash amendment”
e1“barley tissues”
Claim · model-written summary
Fly ash amendments increased Ni, Co, Pb and Cr concentrations in shoots, roots and grains of mycorrhizal barley relative to control and nonmycorrhizal counterparts.
- Taxon
- barleyHordeum vulgaree0
- Organ / stage
- Shoots, roots and grainse0
- Treatment
- 15, 30 and 50% fly ash amendmentse0
- Interactor
- mycorrhizale0symbiont
- Outcome
- concentrations of Ni, Co, Pb and Cre0
- Direction
- highere0
- Comparator
- the control and their respective non-mycorrhizal counterpartse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Shoots, roots and grains of mycorrhizal barley grown with 15, 30 and 50% fly ash amendments had significantly higher concentrations of Ni, Co, Pb and Cr compared to the control and their respective non-mycorrhizal counterparts”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors recommend careful assessment of fly ash use in agricultural soils because heavy metal accumulation may cause irreversible damage.
- Taxon
- barleyHordeum vulgaree1
- Outcome
- careful assessment of manipulation of agricultural soils with fly ashe0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“We recommend careful assessment of manipulation of agricultural soils with fly ash as heavy metal accumulation in agricultural soils and human tissues may cause irreversible damage”
e1“barley plants”
The same questions in other papers
other · nutrient: content · Hordeum vulgare (barley)Positive and negative results
3 papers in the same direction as this paper · 15 in the opposite direction
- positive
- positive
- positive
15 papers more in this group
See all 19 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.