A Comparative Study on the Uptake and Toxicity of Nickel Added in the Form of Different Salts to Maize Seedlings

Jing Nie, Yuqiang Pan, Jing Shi, Yan Guo, Zengguang Yan, Xiaoli Duan and Meng Xu
Additional contact information
Jing Nie: College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Yuqiang Pan: Key Laboratory of Farming System, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Jing Shi: Department of Safety Engineering, China Institute of Industrial Relations, Beijing 100048, China
Yan Guo: College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
Zengguang Yan: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
Xiaoli Duan: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
Meng Xu: State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: In soil ecotoxicological studies, a toxic metal is usually added in the form of either an inorganic or organic salt with relatively high solubility. Nitrate, chloride, acetate, or sulfate are commonly considered as valid options for that aim. However, recent studies have shown that different salts of the same metal at the same cationic concentration may exhibit different toxicities to plants and soil organisms. This information should be considered when selecting data to use for developing toxicological criteria for soil environment. A comparative study was carried out to evaluate the toxicity of five nickel (Ni) salts: NiCl 2 , NiSO 4 , Ni(II)-citrate, Ni(CH 3 COO) 2 , and Ni(II)-EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetate), on maize seedlings. The plant metrics used were plant height, shoot and root biomass, leaf soluble sugars and starch, and the Ni contents of the shoots and roots. The results indicated that when Ni was added to the soil, toxicity varied with the selected anionic partner with the following toxicity ranking NiSO 4 < Ni(CH 3 COO) 2 < Ni(II)-citrate < NiCl 2 < Ni(II)-EDTA. Taking the plant-height metric as an example, the effective concentrations for 50% inhibition (EC 50 ) were 3148 mg·kg ?1 for NiSO 4 , 1315 mg·kg ?1 for NiCl 2 , and 89 mg·kg ?1 for Ni(II)-EDTA. Compared with the Ni in the other salts, that in Ni(II)-EDTA was taken up the most efficiently by the maize roots and, thus, resulted in the greatest toxic effects on the plants. Nickel generally reduced leaf soluble sugars, which indicated an effect on plant carbohydrate metabolism. The outcome of the study demonstrates that different salts of the same metal have quite different ecotoxicities. Therefore, the anionic counterpart of a potentially toxic metal cation must be taken into account in the development of ecotoxicological criteria for evaluating the soil environment, and a preferred approach of leaching soil to reduce the anionic partner should also be considered.

Keywords: maize; nickel salts; nickel toxicity; nickel accumulation; soil contamination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/12/14972/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/12/14972/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:12:p:14972-15087:d:59598

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().