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Brazil’s large land base is important for global food security but its high dependency on inorganic phosphorus (P) fertilizer for crop production (2.2 Tg rising up to 4.6 Tg in 2050) is not a sustainable use of a critical and price-volatile resource. A new strategic analysis of current and future P demand/supply concluded that the nation’s secondary P resources which are produced annually (e.g. livestock manures, sugarcane processing residues) could potentially provide up to 20% of crop P demand by 2050 with further investment in P recovery technologies. However, the much larger legacy stores of secondary P in the soil (30 Tg in 2016 worth over $40 billion and rising to 105 Tg by 2050) could provide a more important buffer against future P scarcity or sudden P price fluctuations, and enable a transition to more sustainable P input strategies that could reduce current annual P surpluses by 65%. In the longer-term, farming systems in Brazil should be redesigned to operate profitably but more sustainably under lower soil P fertility thresholds.

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The application of sewage sludge or biosolids on soils has been widespread in agricultural areas. However, depending on their characteristics, they may cause increase in heavy metal concentration of treated soils. In general, domestic biosolids have lower heavy metal contents than industrial ones. Origin and treatment method of biosolids may markedly influence their characteristics. The legislation that controls the levels of heavy metal contents in biosolids and the maximum concentrations in soils is still controversial. In the long-term, heavy metal behavior after the and of biosolid application is still unknown. In soils, heavy metals may be adsorbed via specific or non-specific adsorption reactions. Iron oxides and organic matter are the most important soil constituents retaining heavy metals. The pH, CEC and the presence of competing ions also affect heavy metal adsorption and speciation in soils. In solution, heavy metals can be present either as free-ions or complexed with organic and inorganic ligands. Generally, free-ions are more relevant in environmental pollution studies since they are readily bioavailable. Some computer models can estimate heavy metal activity in solution and their ionic speciation. Thermodynamic data (thermodynamic stability constant), total metal and ligand concentrations are used by the GEOCHEM-PC program. This program allows studying heavy metal behavior in solution and the effect of changes in the conditions, such as pH and ionic strength and the application of organic and inorganic ligands caused by soil fertilization.

Rare earth elements (REE) are a homogenous group of 17 chemical elements in the periodic table that are key to many modern industries including chemicals, consumer electronics, clean energy, transportation, health care, aviation, and defense. Moreover, in recent years, they have been used in agriculture. One of the consequences of their worldwide use is the possible increase of their levels in various environmental compartments. This review addresses major topics concerning the study of REE in the soil environment, with special attention to the latest research findings. The main sources of REE to soils, the contents of REE in soils worldwide, and relevant information on the effects of REE to plants were explored. Ecological and human health risk issues related to the presence of REE in soils were also discussed. Although several findings reported positive effects of REE on plant growth, many questions about their biological role remain unanswered. Therefore, studies concerning the actual mechanism of action of these elements on cellular and physiological processes should be further refined. Even more urgent is to unveil their chemical behavior in soils and the ecological and human health risks that might be associated with the widespread use of REE in our modern society.

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Selenium is an important element associated with enhancement of antioxidant activity in plants, microorganisms, animals, and humans. In Brazil, the information on Se in agricultural crops is lacking, though there are indications that low levels of Se are consumed by the population. The experiment was conducted under greenhouse conditions with pots containing 3 l of nutritive solution in a completely randomized factorial design, with seven Se concentrations (0, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 µmol/l) and two forms of Se (sodium selenate -Na 2 SeO 4 and sodium selenite -Na 2 SeO 3 ), with six replicates. The application of Se as selenate at low concentrations is more appropriate for lettuce biofortification because it favors shoot biomass growth and Se levels in the shoot biomass. Selenium in both forms had two effects on lettuce plant metabolism: at low doses it acted as an antioxidant and enhanced plant growth, whereas at higher levels it reduced yield.