Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Commodity Utilization Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #371016
Research Project: Developing Technologies that Enable Growth and Profitability in the Commercial Conversion of Sugarcane, Sweet Sorghum, and Energy Beets into Sugar, Advanced Biofuels, and bioproducts-Bridging Project

Location: Commodity Utilization Research

Title: Chemical speciation, plant uptake, and toxicity of heavy metals in agricultural soils

Author
item Uchimiya, Sophie
item BANNON, DESMOND - United States Army Center For Health Promotion And Preventative Medicine
item NAKANISHI, HIROMI - University Of Tokyo
item MCBRIDE, MURRAY - Cornell University
item WILLIAMS, MARC - United States Army Center For Health Promotion And Preventative Medicine
item YOSHIHARA, TOSHIHIRO - Central Research Institute Of Electric Power Industry

Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/10/2020
Publication Date: 3/10/2020
Citation: Uchimiya, M., Bannon, D., Nakanishi, H., McBride, M.B., Williams, M.A., Yoshihara, T. 2020. Chemical speciation, plant uptake, and toxicity of heavy metals in agricultural soils. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 68(46):12856-12869. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.0c00183.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.0c00183

Interpretive Summary: This paper critically examines how heavy metals impact agriculture under conditions relevant to agricultural production in the U.S. The purpose of this paper is to provide direction for, and application of massive efforts and numerous experiments conducted to observe changes in metal solubility, primarily on circumstantial and case-by-case bases.

Technical Abstract: Heavy metals in agricultural soils exist in diverse dissolved (free cations and complexed species of positive, neutral, or negative charges), particulate (sorbed, structural, and co-precipitated), and colloidal (micro- and nanometer-sized particles) species. Fate of different heavy metal species is controlled by the master variables: pH (solubility), ionic strength (activity and charge-shielding), and dissolved organic carbon (complexation). Chemical speciation is a controlling factor of toxicokinetics (uptake of metals by plants) in the rhizosphere to ultimately impact toxicodynamics (cellular response including toxicity). Based on the critical review, the authors recommend interdisciplinary efforts across soil chemistry, microbiology, and plant physiology to connect discrete knowledge bases, with a particular emphasis on “omics” approaches as a disruptive application tool to improve plant tolerance under homeostasis and environmental quality.