Soil Amendments Affecting Nickel and Cobalt Uptake by Berkheya coddii: Potential Use for Phytomining and Phytoremediation

Plants with inordinately high concentrations of heavy metals (‘hyperaccumulators’) can be used for phytoremediation (removal of contaminants from soils) or phytomining (growing a crop of plants to harvest the metals). Pot trials were used to investigate the effects of MgCO3, CaCO3, sulphur, chelatin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of botany 1999-12, Vol.84 (6), p.689-694
Main Authors: ROBINSON, B.H., BROOKS, R.R., CLOTHIER, B.E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acid soils
Agricultural soils
Agrology
Berkheya coddii
Cobalt
Nickel
Nickel, cobalt, phytoremediation, phytomining
phytomining
Phytoremediation
Plants
Serpentine soils
Soil amendments
Soil pollution
Sulfur
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Summary:Plants with inordinately high concentrations of heavy metals (‘hyperaccumulators’) can be used for phytoremediation (removal of contaminants from soils) or phytomining (growing a crop of plants to harvest the metals). Pot trials were used to investigate the effects of MgCO3, CaCO3, sulphur, chelating agents (NTA, DTPA, EDTA) and acid mine tailings on nickel and cobalt uptake by the South African nickel hyperaccumulator Berkheya coddii. Plants were grown in a nickel-rich ultramafic (‘serpentine’) soil diluted with pumice. Both MgCO3and CaCO3caused significant decreases in the uptake of both metals, as well as decreasing their solubility in the soil. After the addition of MgCO3,there was a significant increase in soil pH, so the reduction in plant-metal uptake could not be solely attributed to the action of magnesium alone. Since CaCO3had no significant effect on soil pH, this indicated that calcium inhibits the uptake of both cobalt and nickel. All three chelating agents caused a significant reduction in plant uptake of nickel, despite increasing the solubility (plant availability) of these elements in the soil. Cobalt uptake was unaffected. Sulphur, and the addition of acid mine tailings, caused a highly significant increase in nickel and cobalt uptake, relative to the controls. Sulphur could be used as a low-cost soil amendment to enhance the metal uptake of crops grown on ultramafic soils. Thus, land management procedures would enhance phytoremediation and phytomining operations for nickel and cobalt.
ISSN:0305-7364
1095-8290
DOI:10.1006/anbo.1999.0970