Carbonaceous soil amendments to reduce plant uptake of Cd in NZ’s agricultural systems

Cadmium (Cd) is a non‐essential trace element that accumulates in agricultural soils through the application of Cd-rich phosphate fertiliser and industrial activity. Plants can accumulate Cd to concentrations that sometimes exceed food safety standards presenting a human health risk. Cadmium is readily taken up by plants and can be transferred to grazing animals. In many agricultural systems, Cd concentrations in leafy vegetables and the offal products of grazing animals are at or above food safety standards. There is no practical means of removing Cd from contaminated agricultural soils. Various soil amendments have been used to reduce plant Cd-uptake, but these have mostly focused on heavily contaminated soils and mine tailings. This work aimed to determine whether low cost carbonaceous amendments could effectively reduce Cd uptake by crop plants in agricultural soils with moderate levels of Cd contamination. We used two contrasting market garden soils (a silt loam and a brown granular allophanic soil) for these experiments, where Cd concentrations in selected vegetables were occasionally above food safety standards (0.1 mg/kg fresh weight). Batch sorption experiments were used to determine the ability of the soils and potential soil amendments to bind Cd from a solution of 0.05M Ca(NO3)2. The sorption experiments revealed that composts and lignite bound an order of magnitude more Cd than soils and other potential soil amendments. For all materials, sorption increased with increasing pH of the ambient solution up to a pH of 7.5. Pot trials were used to determine the effect of various composts, lignite and lime on the uptake of Cd by spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), onion (Allium cepa L.) and potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). All composts, added at a rate of 2.5% or 5% (w/w) reduced plant Cd uptake by up to 60%. The composts did not induce a deficiency in the uptake of plant nutrients, including essential trace elements such as zinc, and copper. Composts invariably increased plant biomass. An incubation experiment, including treatments with increased temperature and nitrogen as well as regular disturbance, was used to determine the likely longevity of the Cd-immobilising properties of the composts. After one year of incubation, there was no significant release of Cd from the compost-amended soils, despite a significant reduction in soil carbon. A pot trial using incubated soil also revealed that the beneficial effects of compost for reducing plant Cd uptake persisted for at least one year. The results indicated that mechanical disturbance of the soil may have resulted in the dissolution / suspension of iron moieties that subsequently occluded Cd on the surfaces of soil colloids. Lignite generally reduced plant biomass and its effect on plant Cd-uptake was variable. In some cases, lignite caused a significant increase in plant Cd uptake. This was attributed to acidification, probably caused by oxidation of sulphide compounds in the lignite. Potentially, lignite-lime mixtures may be effective, however, the costs of lignite are significantly greater than composts. Using lime to increase the soil pH from 6.0 to 6.5 generally reduced the Cd concentration in soil solution and in vegetables. However, this effect was not consistent, with some treatments causing an increase in plant uptake. Moreover, liming significantly reduced the uptake of essential micronutrients, especially zinc, which offsets its usefulness as a tool to reduce Cd uptake. I conclude that biological wastes, especially composts, are an underutilised resource that can not only reduce plant Cd-uptake but also improve plant production. Future research should include field trials to determine the performance of Cd in field conditions as well as agronomic practicalities.