scholarly journals Effect of the Long-Term Application of Sewage Sludge to A Calcareous Soil on Its Total and Bioavailable Content in Trace Elements, and Their Transfer to the Crop

Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 356
Author(s):  
Armelle Zaragüeta ◽  
Alberto Enrique ◽  
Iñigo Virto ◽  
Rodrigo Antón ◽  
Henar Urmeneta ◽  
...  

Sewage sludge (SS) can be used as an organic amendment in agricultural soils, provided they comply with the relevant legislation. This use can incorporate traces of metals into the soil, which can cause environmental or human health problems. In the study period between 1992 and 2018 (26 years), it was observed that the use of SS as an organic fertilizer significantly increased the total concentration of Zn, Cu, Cr, Ni and Hg of this study between 55.6% (Hg) and 7.0% (Ni). The concentration of Zn, Cu, Pb, Ni and Cd extracted with DTPA, also increased between 122.2% (Zn) and 11.3% (Cd). In contrast, the Mn concentrations extracted with Diethylene Triamine Pentaacetic Acid (DTPA)were 6.5% higher in the treatments without SS. These changes in the soil had an impact on the crop, which showed a significant increase in the concentration of Zn, Cu and Cr in the grain, between 15.0% (Cr) and 4.4% (Cu), and a decrease in the concentration of Mn, Cr and Ni in the barley straw when SS was added to the soil between 32.2% (Mn) and 29.6% (Ni). However, the limits established by current legislation on soil protection and food were not exceeded. This limited transfer to the crop, is likely due to the high content of carbonates and organic matter in the soil, which limit the bioavailability of most of the trace metals (TM) in the soil. As a conclusion, we observe that the use of SS as an organic amendment increased the concentration of some TM in the soil, in its bioavailable forms, and in the crop.

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1423
Author(s):  
Hana Stiborova ◽  
Martina Kracmarova ◽  
Tereza Vesela ◽  
Marta Biesiekierska ◽  
Jindrich Cerny ◽  
...  

The reuse of stabilized (under thermophilic conditions) sewage sludge and manure on agricultural soils is a common practice. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risks associated with their repeated applications on the spread of pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) that encode resistance to tetracycline (tetA and tetW), sulphonamide (sul1 and sul2), erythromycin (ermB), vancomycin (vanA) and integron genetic element (intI1). The trial fields has been regularly fertilized every 3rd year since 1996 with manure (MF; 330 kg N/ha) and sewage sludge (SF; 330 kg N/ha and SF3; 990 kg N/ha). Unfertilized soil (CF) served as a control. Samples were collected at different time points: (i) right before fertilization (which was also 3 years after the last fertilization), (ii) 5 months after fertilization, and (iii) 11 months after fertilization. The relative abundance of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) assigned to potentially pathogenic bacteria was low (0.3% and 0.25% in sludge and manure, respectively), and no association with the application of these fertilizers was found. On the other hand, our data indicate that an increased relative abundance of the ARGs sul1 and tetW was significantly associated with these fertilizer applications, and sul1 was increased in all treatments regardless of the time. It is suggested that sul1 should be monitored in organically fertilized soils to prevent its spread and possible further accumulation in crops.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Cagnarini ◽  
Stephen Lofts ◽  
Luigi Paolo D'Acqui ◽  
Jochen Mayer ◽  
Roman Grüter ◽  
...  

Abstract. Soil contamination by trace elements (TEs) is a major concern for sustainable land management. One potential source of excessive inputs of TEs into agricultural soils are organic amendments. Here, we use dynamic simulations carried out with the IDMM-ag model to describe observed trends of topsoil Zn, Cu, Pb and Cd concentrations in a long-term crop trial in Switzerland, where soils plots have been treated with differing organic amendments, particularly farmyard manure, sewage sludge and compost. IDMM-ag requires the definition of a parsimonious set of boundary conditions. The model adequately reproduced the metal EDTA-extractable concentrations in ZOFE when site-specific soil lateral mixing, due to mechanically ploughing of small plots, was introduced. Calibration of an additional metal input flux was necessary to fit the measured data, indicating that knowledge gaps in quantifying historical metal inputs can affect field-scale simulations even in a well-characterized field. Projections of soil metal content in the long-term showed that, under stable organic amendment application rates, Zn and Cu labile concentrations might pose toxicological hazard for the soil ecosystem, particularly in the sewage sludge-amended plots. The sewage sludge topsoil was characterized by some variability in the organic matter composition, potentially due to the applied sewage sludge quality, which might affect the metal lability: this effect should be accounted for in models. This study takes a step forward in assessing potential and limitations of the IDMM-ag model to predict TEs long-term dynamics in agricultural fields, paving the way to quantitative applications of TEs modelling at field and larger scales.


Author(s):  
Gintaras ŠIAUDINIS ◽  
Danutė KARČAUSKIENĖ

The long-term field experiment with new high yielding perennial energy crop - cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum L.) was conducted in order to evaluate its biomass productivity in Vėžaičiai branch of the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agricultural and Forestry. Experimental site – naturally acid Bathygleic Dystric Glossic Retisol, pH 4.2-4.4. Granulated sewage sludge was applied (at 45 and 90 t ha-1 rates) as an alternative organic fertilizer. The fertilization was done at the beginning of the experiment, prior to cup plant’s sprouts planting in 2013. Each experimental year, traditional N60P60K60 fertilization was performed in a separate treatment. Cup plant’s biomass was harvesting once per season at the end of vegetation. Cup plant’s dry mass (DM) yield substantially increased from 2.80 t ha-1 (in 2014) to 13.41 t ha-1 (in 2016). The use of sewage sludge fertilization was notably superior to that of mineral fertilization for cup plant’s biomass productivity. In all experimental years, the optimal was the application of 45 t ha-1 rate of sewage sludge - in compare with unfertilized treatment (control), DM yield increased by 66 %, on average. Increasing of sewage sludge rate up to 90 kg ha-1 did not give any DM yield supplement. Energy evaluation of growing technology revealed that the application of 45 t ha-1 sewage sludge rate caused the substantial increase of energy output from 1 ha; and on the contrarily, sharply decreased net energy ratio. In order to determine the long-term effects of fertilization on biomass yield, these studies will continue a few more years.


Agronomie ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Gigliotti ◽  
Pier Lodovico Giusquiani ◽  
Daniela Businelli

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (25) ◽  
pp. 26000-26014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciano A. Gomes ◽  
Nuno Gabriel ◽  
Licínio M. Gando-Ferreira ◽  
José C. Góis ◽  
Margarida J. Quina

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-66
Author(s):  
Mahboub Saffari ◽  
Vahid Reza Saffari ◽  
Hojatollah Khabazzadeh ◽  
Hormazd Naghavi

AbstractIn current study, the effect of various organic substances as bulking agents (BAs) including wheat straw, pistachio hull wastes, and tree leaves at different levels (10, 25, 45% v/v) were investigated on total concentration and chemical forms of Cu, Pb, Cr, and As in sewage sludge (SS) compost prepared by windrow method. According to the results, the composting process (with/without BAs), due to losses of SS mass and volume, increased the total concentration of heavy metals (HMs) compared to the un-composted SS sample (RSS). Evaluation of HMs chemical forms in prepared compost sample without BAs application (CSS) showed that the composting process reduced the mobility factor of As (from 28% to 20%), Pb (from 11.6% to 9.3%), and Cr (from 14.5% to 9.2%) compared to the RSS. Application of three BAs considerably decreased the mobility factor of As (17.5-18.8%), Pb (4.8-7.9%), and Cr (1.4-6.8%) compared to CSS and RSS. Changes of Cu mobility in prepared compost samples showed an unclear trend, however in some treatments, due to transferred organic fraction into exchangeable and carbonate fractions, increasing of this factor was obvious. Generally, the composting appeared to reduce As, Pb, and Cr availability by stabilizing the three metals and making them more stable and less mobile. In addition, the BAs application effect on HMs behavior of SS compost samples were so different and no specific kind of BAs can be recommended as a superior BAs in SS composting process.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document