Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Adaptive Cropping Systems Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #281144

Title: Effects of byproducts amended lead contaminated urban soils on carrot yield and lead uptake

Author
item Codling, Eton
item WOOTEN, A - George Mason University
item DE MONSABERT, S - George Mason University

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/27/2012
Publication Date: 10/23/2012
Citation: Codling, E.E., Wooten, A., De Monsabert, S. 2012. Effects of byproducts amended lead contaminated urban soils on carrot yield and lead uptake. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts. ASA-CSSA-SSSA International meeting. On Disk.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Lead (Pb) has been used to produce a large number of materials and manufactured products. In areas with a history of lead paint use, high vehicular traffic and/or areas close to urban and industrial centers, atmospheric lead deposition may be very high. Consequently, a high deposition of lead in urban environments is wide spread due to high road density, high vehicle use, industrial activity, and a high population density. The aerosol form of Pb can be re-suspended and easily inhaled on fine dust particles and/or inadvertently consumed in crops grown in lead contaminated soils. At low levels, Pb will impair psychological and neurobehavioral functions particularly in young children. Remediation of lead contaminated soils by conventional methods is expensive and renders land unavailable for plant uptake. The use of low cost environmentally safe amendments for the In situ fixation of lead contaminated soil is a promising remediation. In situ lead fixation does not reduce the total concentration of soil lead but changes its speciation, thus rendering the changed lead species less toxic and even non-bioavailable in the eco-system. In our study, four different agricultural, municipal and industrial byproducts that are known to contain chemical compounds that will absorb and fix lead were used. The byproducts used were poultry litter ash as a phosphate source, drinking water treatment residual as an aluminum, sulfate and iron source, steel slag as an alumina, iron, and magnesium source, and leaf compost as a organic matter source. Soils were collected from three urban locations: Ft. DuPont National Park, Washington, DC, Washington, DC residential soil, and Baltimore City, MD residential soil, with an average total lead of 38, 1099 and 1088 mg kg-1. Byproducts were mixed with each soil at three rates and incubated moist for 58 days. Carrots were grown for 90 days. Carrot biomass yield were significantly affected by byproducts amendment. Carrot yield for the Baltimore soil had the highest yield followed by Washington, DC and Ft. DuPont respectively. Lead uptake by carrots will be presented.