Depletion of bioavailable As/Cd with rice plant from paddy soils of high contamination risk

Abstract

Co-uptake and high accumulation of As and Cd by rice is an outstanding issue threatening public health. From the viewpoint of soil cleanup, however, efficient As/Cd extraction by this paddy-adapted plant, followed by biomass removal, could provide a major pathway depleting As/Cd accumulation in paddy soils and thus inhibiting their transfer in food chain. Here a field trial was performed to identify the significance of As/Cd cleanup from paddy soil by rice. 88 % and 51 % of total extracted As and Cd were retained in root. To eliminate specifically rice-available As/Cd pool and obstruct their cycling back to soil, one crop of rice root was removed, leading to the depletion of 46 % and 69 % of plant available As (soluble & exchangeable) and Cd (exchangeable & carbonate-bound), respectively. In the following cultivation on the post-cleanup field, polished rice As fell from 0.23 mg kg−1 to 0.12 mg kg−1, markedly lower than the Chinese (WHO) limit (0.2 mg kg−1). Meanwhile, white rice Cd decreased by 24 %. This field work identified that As/Cd co-extraction by paddy-adapted rice plant, followed by root removal, as a primary step toward rice safety in areas with high contamination risk but little reserved paddy resources.