Arbuscular mycorrhizas amplify the risk of heavy metal transfer to human food chain from fly ash ameliorated agricultural soils
Goswami, Vikrant and Deepika, Sharma and Diwakar, Swati and Kothamasi, David (2023) Arbuscular mycorrhizas amplify the risk of heavy metal transfer to human food chain from fly ash ameliorated agricultural soils. Environmental Pollution, 329. 121733. ISSN 0269-7491 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121733)
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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.
ORCID iDs
Goswami, Vikrant, Deepika, Sharma, Diwakar, Swati and Kothamasi, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6344-9249;-
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Item type: Article ID code: 85319 Dates: DateEvent15 July 2023Published27 April 2023Published Online26 April 2023Accepted17 January 2023SubmittedSubjects: Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > Environmental Sciences
LawDepartment: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > Strathclyde Law School > Law Depositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 27 Apr 2023 14:54 Last modified: 27 Nov 2024 13:50 URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/85319