Effects and mechanisms of different organic manure on minimizing cadmium concentrations in rice grains.
Liu Y, Huang Q, Xu Y, Qin X, Sun Y
Soil Health
The compost pile in your backyard isn't just about fertility — what you add to contaminated soil determines whether your food crop locks up heavy metals or pulls them straight into the grain.
Scientists tested three types of animal and plant-based fertilizers on rice grown in soil polluted with cadmium, a toxic heavy metal that can accumulate in rice and harm people who eat it. They found that green manure (plant-based) and earthworm manure helped keep cadmium locked in the soil where plants couldn't take it up. Chicken manure, especially in large amounts, did the opposite — it freed up cadmium in the soil and led to higher levels in the rice plants.
Key Findings
Green manure and earthworm manure reduced cadmium uptake in rice across all growth stages and all tested cadmium concentration levels.
Excessive chicken manure application increased the bioavailable fraction of cadmium in soil, amplifying heavy metal accumulation risk in rice tissues.
FT-IR spectroscopy showed that the three organic fertilizers have distinct chemical structures, which explains their different effects on cadmium mobility and soil chemistry.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Applying green manure or earthworm manure to cadmium-contaminated rice paddies significantly reduced how much of the toxic metal ended up in rice grains, while too much chicken manure made the problem worse by releasing more cadmium into a form plants can absorb.
Abstract Preview
Cadmium (Cd) contamination in agricultural soils represents a global issue for soil health and food safety. This study aimed to investigate the effects of organic fertilizers from different sources...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Species Mentioned
Was this useful?
Chloroplast Genome Editing Eliminates Gluten Immunogenicity in Triticum aestivum
It could mean that people with celiac disease — roughly 1 in 100 worldwide — may one day safely eat bread made from real wheat, without sacrificing the taste...
Rice is a cereal grain and in its domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa —or, much less commonly, Oryza glaberrima. Asian rice was domesticated in China some 13,500 to 8,200 y...