Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Oct 17;7(1):13408.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-13895-y.

Municipal sewage sludge compost promotes Mangifera persiciforma tree growth with no risk of heavy metal contamination of soil

Shuangshuang Chu  1 , Daoming Wu  1 , Liyin L Liang  2 , Fengdi Zhong  1 , Yaping Hu  1 , Xinsheng Hu  1 , Can Lai  1 , Shucai Zeng  3
Affiliations

Municipal sewage sludge compost promotes Mangifera persiciforma tree growth with no risk of heavy metal contamination of soil

Shuangshuang Chu et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Application of sewage sludge compost (SSC) as a fertilizer on landscaping provides a potential way for the effective disposal of sludge. However, the response of landscape trees to SSC application and the impacts of heavy metals from SSC on soil are poorly understood. We conducted a pot experiment to investigate the effects of SSC addition on Mangifera persiciforma growth and quantified its uptake of heavy metals from SSC by setting five treatments with mass ratios of SSC to lateritic soil as 0%:100% (CK), 15%:85% (S15), 30%:70% (S30), 60%:40% (S60), and 100%:0% (S100). As expected, the fertility and heavy metal concentrations (Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd) in substrate significantly increased with SSC addition. The best performance in terms of plant height, ground diameter, biomass and N, P, K uptake were found in S30, implying a reasonable amount of SSC could benefit the growth of M. persiciforma. The concentrations of Cu, Pb and Cd in S30 were insignificantly different from CK after harvest, indicating that M. persiciforma reduced the risk of heavy metal contamination of soil arising from SSC application. This study suggests that a reasonable rate of SSC addition can enhance M. persiciforma growth without causing the contamination of landscaping soil by heavy metals.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Height (A) and ground diameter (B) of M. persiciforma under different treatments. Data are shown as the mean ± SE from the five replicates of each treatment. For each group, columns with the same letters are not significantly different (α = 0.05 by Duncan’s test).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Accumulation of nutrients by M. persiciforma under different treatments. Data are shown as the mean ± SE from the five replicates of each treatment. For each group, columns with the same letters are not significantly different (α = 0.05 by Duncan’s test).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Accumulation of heavy metals by M. persiciforma under different treatments. Data are shown as the mean ± SE from the five replicates of each treatment. For each group, columns with the same letters are not significantly different (α = 0.05 by Duncan’s test).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Concentrations and relative change ratio of Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd in substrates after M. persiciforma harvest. A, concentration and relative change ratio of Cu. B, concentration and relative change ratio of Zn. C, concentration and relative change ratio of Pb. D, concentration and relative change ratio of Cd. Values are mean ± SE (n = 5). Means with different lower-case letters are significantly different among treatments for the relative change ratio (α = 0.05 by Duncan test). Means with different upper-case letters are significantly different among treatments for the concentration (α = 0.05 by Duncan test).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Kelessidis A, Stasinakis AS. Comparative study of the methods used for treatment and final disposal of sewage sludge in European countries. Waste Manag. 2012;32:1186–1195. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2012.01.012. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zhang QH, et al. Current status of urban wastewater treatment plants in China. Environment Int. 2016;92–93:11–22. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2016.03.024. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Yue Y, Yao Y, Lin Q, Li G, Zhao X. The change of heavy metals fractions during hydrochar decomposition in soils amended with different municipal sewage sludge hydrochars. J. Soil. Sediment. 2017;17:763–770. doi: 10.1007/s11368-015-1312-2. - DOI
    1. Bai Y, Zang C, Gu M, Gu C, Shao H. Sewage sludge as an initial fertility driver for rapid improvement of mudflat salt-soils. Sci. Total Environ. 2017;578:47–55. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.06.083. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zhang L, et al. The impact of silver nanoparticles on the co-composting of sewage sludge and agricultural waste: Evolutions of organic matter and nitrogen. Bioresource Technol. 2017;230:132–139. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.01.032. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types