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. 2019 May 9;16(9):1624.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph16091624.

Silicon Amendment Reduces Soil Cd Availability and Cd Uptake of Two Pennisetum Species

Qiyu Dong  1   2 , Jianbo Fang  3 , Fei Huang  4   5 , Kunzheng Cai  6   7
Affiliations

Silicon Amendment Reduces Soil Cd Availability and Cd Uptake of Two Pennisetum Species

Qiyu Dong et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Silicon (Si) plays important roles in alleviating heavy metal stress, but the migrating effects and mechanisms, especially for Pennisetum, are not well studied. In this study, Pennisetum glaucum and Pennisetum glaucum × P. purpureum were used to explore the impacts of Si application on alleviating cadmium (Cd) toxicity and its possible mechanism. Treatments consist of four levels of Cd (0, 10, 50, and 100 mg·kg-1) with or without 2.0 mM Si amendments. Under Cd stress, Si application significantly increased plant biomass and Si content, reduced Cd content, and decreased the enrichment factor in shoots and roots. Si treatment also increased soil pH and soil residual Cd, while reducing available/oxidizable/reducible Cd content in soil at 50 and 100 mg·kg-1 Cd levels, thereby leading to a reduction of the soil's available Cd. These findings indicate that Si application is effective in alleviating Cd phytotoxicity of Pennisetum, mainly through reducing plant Cd uptake and increasing soil pH and Cd immobilization, thereby reducing Cd bioavailability.

Keywords: Pennisetum; cadmium; silicon; soil; toxic metal elements.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Effects of Si on the biomass of Pennisetum under Cd stress. (a,c) shoot and root biomass of P. glaucum × P. purpureum; (b,d) shoot and root biomass of P. glaucum. Values are mean ± SE (n = 3). * indicates significant difference between different treatments of the same variety, according to one-way ANOVA followed by the Duncan test (p < 0.05).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Effect of Si on soil pH of (a) P. glaucum × P. purpureum and (b) P. glaucum. Values are mean ± SE (n = 3). Values followed by the different letters indicate significant differences between different treatments of the same variety, according to one-way ANOVA and Duncan test (p < 0.05).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effect of Si on soil total Cd concentration of (a) P. glaucum × P. purpureum and (b) P. glaucum. Values are mean ± SE (n = 3). Values followed by the different letters indicate significant differences between different treatments of the same variety, according to one-way ANOVA followed by the Duncan test (p < 0.05).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Effect of Si on the fractions of Cd in soil for (a,c,e,g) P. glaucum × P. purpureum and (b,d,f,h) P. glaucum. (a,b) Exchangeable Cd. (c,d) Reducible Cd. (e,f) Oxidizable Cd. (g,h) Residual Cd. Values followed by the different letters indicate significant differences between the different treatments of the same variety, according to one-way ANOVA followed by the Duncan test (p < 0.05).
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