Effect of soil and plant amendments on trace element uptake and

150 Pages·2009·4.32 MB·English

ETH Library
Effect of soil and plant
amendments on trace element
uptake and distribution in crop
plants
Doctoral Thesis
Author(s):
Fässler, Erika
Publication date:
2009
Permanent link:
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-005983755
Rights / license:
In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted
This page was generated automatically upon download from the ETH Zurich Research Collection.
For more information, please consult the Terms of use.

Diss. ETH No. 18684

Effect of soil and plant amendments on trace element uptake and
distribution in crop plants

A dissertation submitted to the
SWISS FEDERAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ZURICH

for the degree of
DOCTOR OF SCIENCES

presented by

ERIKA FÄSSLER
Dipl. Umwelt-Natw. ETH
born 15 September 1973
citizen of Appenzell AI

accepted on the recommendation of
Prof. Dr. Rainer Schulin, examiner
Prof. Dr. Emmanuel Frossard, co-examiner
Dr. Satish K. Gupta, co-examiner

2009

Acknowledgements

Completing a PhD without help from other people is nearly impossible. Therefore, I
would like to thank to everybody who contributed in one way or another to the success of
this work. I will omit the titles of the people I’m going to thank because it feels
uncomfortably formal in the acknowledgements and because I’m grateful to the persons and
not to their degree. Firstly, I would like to thank my doctoral advisors Rainer Schulin and
Satish Gupta for giving me the possibility to work on this project and allowing me so much
freedom in the planning and design of my experiments. While giving me this freedom, they
were always available to give guidance and useful advice whenever I needed it. I also would
like to thank Brett Robinson, Andreas Papritz and Michael Evangelou for their great help in
all kinds of theoretical and technical questions and for providing good and helpful ideas.
I’m grateful to Lucien Bovet and Sonia Plaza from the University of Fribourg for giving
me the opportunity to carry out a gene expression study together with them and I would like
to thank them for the pleasant collaboration. I’m also indebted to Amélie Fragnière and
Régis Mark for technical laboratory assistance as well as for introducing me into gene
expression analysis.
Many thanks go to all the people from the groups where I worked, who provided great
assistance in the field and in the laboratory. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the
help of Werner Stauffer and co-workers who took care of the field experiment in Witzwil,
conducting all the important work needed and preparing plant and soil samples of the long-
term experiment. I would also like to thank Hans-Jörg Bachmann, Diane Bürge, Hans-Ruedi
Bosshard, Jean Paul and all other co-workers from Reckenholz who helped analysing the
Witzwil samples. I’m also thankful to Anna Grünwald, Werner Attinger, René Saladin and
Alexander Pirochta for their great help in the laboratory and in the field. Special thank goes
to Björn Studer and Viktor Stadelmann who stood in for me in the laboratory at the end of
the last experiments so that I had enough time for writing.
Finally I would like to thank all the people who accompanied me in an unscientific way
through the last few years. I’m thinking of the many enjoyable coffee and lunch brakes, ice
cream times and beers in the evening with great people from the soil protection, soil
chemistry and soil physics groups. I’m particularly grateful to Beat Schäffer, Martin Tschan,
Kajsa Knecht, Claudia Hahn, Irena Paunovic, Annina Bürgi and Nazanin Roohani, with
I
Acknowledgements

whom I had the pleasure to share the office, as well as to Monica Marchetti and Judit
Valentini. I would also like to thank my friends outside ETH, Sasha Müller, Nathali Balmer,
Sandra Schäffer, Isabelle Hugentobler, Myriam Schmid, Judith Bertolaso, Anita Richli, Rita
Kobler and Pascal Wernli, as well as my whole family. I thank you all for being there,
helping me getting over bad times and enjoying the good times with me!
II
Contents

Acknowledgements I
Summary VII
Zusammenfassung XI
1 Introduction 1
2 Background 7
2.1 Historical background of the experimental site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 Genes involved in Cd detoxification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3 Auxin – a growth promoting phytohormone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3 Phytomanagement of metal- contaminated agricultural land using sunflower,
maize and tobacco 21
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.2 Materials and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2.1 Site description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2.2 Experimental design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2.3 Soil sampling and analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.2.4 Plant sampling and analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.2.5 Analytical quality assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.2.6 Statistical analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3.1 Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3.2 Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.4.1 Soil properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.4.2 Plant concentrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

III
Contents

3.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.6 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.7 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4 Phytomanagement of metal-contaminated agricultural land – follow up 45
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.2 Materials and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.3.1 Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.3.2 Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.6 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.7 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5 Uptake and allocation of plant nutrients and Cd in maize, sunflower and
tobacco growing on contaminated soil and the effect of soil conditioners
under field conditions 57
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.2 Materials and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.2.1 Experimental site and design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.2.2 Sampling and sample analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.2.3 Statistical data analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.3 Results and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.3.1 Soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.3.2 Plant growth and element uptake on untreated soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.3.3 Element allocation in plants on untreated soil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.3.4 Treatment effects on plant growth, element uptake and allocation . . . . . . . . 72
5.3.5 Implications for agricultural crop production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

IV
Contents

5.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.5 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
6 Expression of genes involved in cadmium uptake and detoxification in
tobacco plants grown on a sulphur-amended metal-contaminated field 81
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.2 Materials and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.2.1 Experimental design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.2.2 Cadmium and nutrient concentrations in tobacco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.2.3 Gene expression analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
6.2.4 Statistical analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
6.3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
6.3.1 Treatment effects on soil properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
6.3.2 Treatment effects on element uptake by the plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6.3.3 Gene expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
6.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
6.6 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6.7 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
7 Effect of auxin and EDDS on sunflower growth and heavy metal uptake 105
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
7.2 Materials and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
7.2.1 Hydroponics experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
7.2.2 Pot experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
7.2.3 Root growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
7.2.4 Metal analysis of plant and soil samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
7.2.5 Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

V
Contents

7.3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
7.3.1 Hydroponics experiments (set 1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
7.3.2 Hydroponics experiments (set 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
7.3.3 Pot experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
7.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
7.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
7.6 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
7.7 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
8 Conclusions 129
Curriculum Vitae 133
VI