Combined organic amendments reduce Cd accumulation in double-cropping rice by restructuring soil bacterial communities.
Li P, Fang C, Zhang J, Lu Y, Qin M
Phytoremediation
Soil amendments you might already use in your garden — compost, straw mulch, and biochar — work partly by recruiting beneficial bacteria that bind heavy metals so plants never take them up.
Cadmium is a toxic metal that can build up in rice grown on contaminated farmland and end up in food. Scientists found that mixing green manure crops, rice straw, and a charcoal-like material called biochar into the soil changed which bacteria lived there, and some of those bacteria were really good at locking cadmium to soil particles so rice roots couldn't absorb it. After two growing seasons, rice grown in the treated soil had more than 50% less cadmium in the grains compared to rice grown with standard fertilizers.
Key Findings
MRFB treatment reduced soil available cadmium by 67% in the early rice season and 56% in the late season.
Rice grain cadmium concentrations dropped by 52–58% across both growing seasons compared to conventional fertilization.
The bacterium Thiobacillus was identified as a key genus responsible for cadmium immobilization, enriched by the combined amendments and negatively correlated with cadmium availability.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Combining milk vetch, rice straw, and sesbania biochar as soil amendments cut the amount of toxic cadmium absorbed by rice grains by more than half, and researchers traced the benefit to specific soil bacteria that lock cadmium in place.
Abstract Preview
Cadmium (Cd) contamination in paddy soils poses a serious threat to rice safety and human health. The combined application of milk vetch, rice straw, and sesbania biochar (MRFB) has shown promise i...
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