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The effect of liming on heavy metal concentrations in wheat, carrots and spinach grown on previously sludge-applied soils

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

P. S. Hooda  and
B. J. Alloway
P. S. Hooda
Affiliation:
Environmental Science Unit, Geography Department, Queen Mary & Westfield College, London University, Mile End Road, London El 4NS, UK
B. J. Alloway
Affiliation:
Department of Soil Science, The University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 233, Reading RG6 6DW, UK
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Summary

Liming is often recommended to minimize the plant uptake of potentially toxic elements from sludgeamended soils. In outdoor experiments conducted during 1989–91 in a rural location, near Brentwood (UK), wheat, carrots and spinach were grown on soils from a wide range of sites previously amended with heavy applications of sewage sludge. The objective of these studies was to examine the effect of liming on the accumulation of sludge-borne metals in the crop plants. The results showed that liming the soils to pH 7 prior to sowing significantly reduced metal concentrations in carrots and spinach, although the reduction appeared to be greater for Cd, Ni and Zn than for Cu and Pb. The wheat crop was grown on soils which had been limed 2 years previously, and the average pH of these soils was 6·5 compared to a pH value of 5·95 in the unlimed soils. This comparatively small pH difference between limed and unlimed soils (6·50–5·95) generally had little influence on metal contents in wheat.

These results suggested that maintaining the soil at pH 7 is better than pH 6·5 for minimizing the accumulation of potentially toxic elements from soils which have received relatively high levels of sludge application over many years. The data for winter wheat suggested either that metal uptake into the grain was not sensitive to differences in soil pH or that a relatively small residual effect of past liming was not high enough to reduce metal uptake.

Type
Crops and Soils
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 127 , Issue 3 , November 1996 , pp. 289 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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