Abstract
To investigate the potential link between toxic heavy elements in soil with soil physiochemical properties and oxides, as well as their impact on the bioaccumulation of these elements in wheat grains. Agriculture soil and wheat grains were sampled from Yaychi area, Kirkuk northeast of Iraq. Soil physiochemical properties, oxides and toxic heavy elements contents were determined. The average concentration of toxic heavy elements in soil was in this order Ni> Cr> Pb> As> Cd> Hg, and some of these elements had exceeded their average in earth's crust and Canadian Agricultural Soil Quality Guidelines. While in wheat grains the toxic heavy elements, contents were in the following order Cr> Ni> Pb> As> Cd> Hg. The soil physiochemical properties in the study area are shown to be medium alkaline, non-saline, calcareous, non-gypsiferous, inorganic and loam texture. It became clear from the correlation matrix that the toxic heavy elements except for arsenic have significant relationships with different soil physiochemical properties and major oxides. In turn, oxides and the physiochemical properties of the soil and its type reduced the bioaccumulation of these elements in wheat grains except for arsenic, as appeared in the present study, that toxic heavy elements do not accumulate in wheat grains. And among the studied elements, arsenic had the highest bioaccumulation rate in wheat grains, because its concentration in soil has been affected by only human activities.
Highlights
Toxic heavy elements are considered one of the serious environmental contaminants (Nagajyoti et al 2010)
Yaychi region is considered one of the important agricultural areas where various crops of cereals and vegetables are cultivated continuously and consumed by the population. the aim of this study is to identify the extent of toxic heavy elements translocation from agricultural soil to wheat grains, their bioaccumulation, and the role of the oxides and soil type and its different physiochemical properties in reducing bioaccumulation of these elements in wheat grains and have knowledge whether these agricultural lands are suitable for planting wheat crop or not
It was concluded that soil physiochemical properties and its type as well as the oxide content of the soil played an important role in reducing the bioaccumulation and concentration of Pb, Ni, Cd, Cr and Hg elements in wheat grains except for arsenic
Summary
Toxic heavy elements are considered one of the serious environmental contaminants (Nagajyoti et al 2010). The main toxic heavy elements include arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, nickel and chromium (Friis, 2012; Tokar et al 2013), they are toxic even in low concentrations and have the ability to bioaccumulate, this indicates that they may become harmful due to their entry into the food chain (Friis, 2012). The high soil content of heavy elements causes negative impacts on life forms and the environment due to their toxicity (Al-Jaberi et al 2016). The reason for considering pollution and accumulation of toxic heavy elements as a significant problem is because of their plenty of different sources, toxicity, non-biodegradable characteristics, and tendency to accumulate (Hu et al 2017).
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