Lime and Compost Promote Plant Re-Colonization of Metal-Polluted, Acidic Soils

Christopher Ulriksen, Rosanna Ginocchio, Michel Mench, Alexander Neaman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

The revegetation of soils affected by historic depositions of an industrial complex in Central Chile was studied. The plant re-colonization from the existing soil seed bank and changes in the physico-chemical properties of the soil were evaluated in field plots amended with lime and/or compost. We found that the application of lime and/or compost decreased the Cu2+ ion activity in the soil solution and the exchangeable Cu in the soil, showing an effective Cu immobilization in the topsoil. Whereas lime application had no effect on plant productivity in comparison with the unamended control, the application of compost and lime+compost increased the plant cover and aboveground biomass due to the higher nutrient availability and water-holding capacity of the compost-amended soils. Although the Cu2+ activity and the exchangeable Cu were markedly lower in the amended soils than in the unamended control, the shoot Cu concentrations of Lolium spp. and Eschscholzia californica did not differ between the treatments.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)820-833
Number of pages14
JournalInternational Journal of Phytoremediation
Volume14
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2012

Keywords

  • Puchuncaví Valley
  • Ventanas industrial complex
  • bioavailability
  • in situ immobilization
  • metal toxicity
  • phytostabilization

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