Primary Factors Affecting Soil Bioavailable Cadmium and Asenic by Different Properties of Silicon Fertilizer

Abstract

To clarify the primary factors affecting soil bioavailable cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As) by silicon fertilizer, we chose different properties of silicon fertilizer, including three types of alkaline silicon fertilizer[Na2SiO3, CaSiO3, and ASSF (pH 9-11)] and one weak acid neutral soluble silicon fertilizer (NSSF, pH 5-6), to carry out a pot experiment by adding different amounts of Si fertilizer (25-800 mg·kg-1, calculated as Si). After 21 days of flooding, soil basic physical and chemical properties, along with diffusive gradients in thin film Cd and As (DGT-Cd and DGT-As) were investigated. The results showed that the application of Si fertilizer with different properties had different significant effects on the basic physical and chemical properties of soil. Specifically, the three types of alkaline silicon fertilizer significantly increased the soil pH (P<0.05), among which Na2SiO3 exhibited the strongest ability; however, the application of NSSF remarkably reduced soil pH (P<0.05), and per unit (mg) Si application of NSSF could reduce soil pH by 0.0017 units. Furthermore, with each fertilizer application rate that reached 400 mg·kg-1 (calculated as Si), the changes in soil pH and Eh tended to be gentle. The ability of the four types of silicon fertilizer to improve soil available silicon ranked as NSSF>Na2SiO3>ASSF>CaSiO3. Additionally, the application of the three types of alkaline silicon fertilizer apparently decreased soil DGT-Cd while increasing soil DGT-As (P<0.05). When the addition rate of CaSiO3 was up to 100 mg·kg-1(calculated as Si), soil DGT-Cd concentration could be significantly decreased by approximately 50.89% without causing a significant increase in soil DGT-As concentration. Conversely, when the NSSF application rate was up to 400 mg·kg-1 (calculated as Si), the soil DGT-As basically reached its steady-state, and the DGT-As reduction rate reached 85.87%. Strikingly, the correlation analysis of the influencing factors of soil DGT-Cd and DGT-As showed that soil pH was the main factor affecting soil bioavailable Cd and As (DGT-Cd and DGT-As), and the effect of soil available Si and P on soil Cd and As bioavailability was negligible. Consequently, soil DGT-Cd and soil DGT-As could reach a minimum when soil pH was adjusted to 6.5-7.0 or 5-5.5 by alkaline silicon fertilizer or NSSF, respectively. It is undoubtedly of great significance, to clarify the primary factors that influence soil bioavailable Cd and As to ensure food security production.