Selenium bioavailability in soil-wheat system and its dominant influential factors: A field study in Shaanxi province, China

Abstract

Selenium (Se) content of crops depends on the local soil Se content and/or its bioavailability, and identifying the influence factors of soil Se bioavailability is a significant basis for adopting targeted agronomic measures to improve the Se nutritional status of humans. In this study, the main wheat–producing region in Shaanxi province with similar parent material and climate conditions was selected as the study area. The total Se contents of 602 soil samples and their corresponding wheat grains were determined, and the distribution characteristics of soil Se bioavailability and its dominant influential factors were investigated. Results showed that the total Se content ranged from 0.02 mg/kg to 1.67 mg/kg (average of 0.25 ± 0.25 mg/kg) in soil, which was lower than that content in China (0.29 mg/kg). The Se content of wheat grain was 0.001–1.50 mg/kg (average of 0.11 ± 0.19 mg/kg). The distribution trend of the Se content in wheat grains was different from that of the total soil Se, but it was consistent with the distribution of soil bioavailable Se content. The bioavailable Se accounted for 11.1% of the total soil Se. This could be attributed to relatively high soil Se bioavailability of the study area belonging to alkaline soil (with a pH of approximately 8). Both redundancy analysis and path analysis revealed that soil pH and organic matter were the dominant influential factors of soil Se bioavailability in Shaanxi wheat–producing area, and the soil Se bioavailability increased with these two parameters raising. On this basis, a prediction model was established to predict the Se content in wheat grain. The results show that the various agronomic measures could be used to produce Se-enriched wheat by regulating the soil pH and the organic matter content in Se biofortification practice.