Production of the forage halophyte Atriplex amnicola in metal‐contaminated soils

Abstract

Clean‐up of contaminated soils is a costly and slow process that requires long periods of time to be effective. Therefore, direct use of contaminated sites with appropriate management is often likely to be a more efficient use of such land. Consequently, the production of safe animal forages from contaminated soils was the aim of this research. Field studies were conducted to evaluate the growth and elemental composition of river saltbush (Atriplex amnicola) grown on a metal‐contaminated soil. The soil was amended with compost at rates of 0, 15 and 30 t/ha to assess its role on plant growth and metal uptake. Compost application significantly (P < 0.05) increased biomass yield, crude protein (CP) and ash content of river saltbush; in contrast, it decreased the Zn and Pb concentrations in shoot tissues. When 30 t/ha of compost was added, the Pb concentrations in the stems and leaves decreased by 32 and 38%, respectively. Despite the large total and extractable content of metals in the studied soil, shoot concentrations of these metals in A. amnicola were always maintained below potentially toxic levels. The biomass material of A. amnicola had a high nutritive value compared to conventional forage crops and could safely be used as animal forage. This work demonstrates that an Atriplex spp, A. amnicola, has significant potential for use as a safe forage crop in the sustainable on‐site management of contaminated soils.

Potential of Some Forage Shrubs for Improving Degraded Rangelands Using Compost in Northwestern Coast of Egypt

“…The increase from these traits could be due to vital role of compost as organic manure for soil and crops. These results are in harmony with those obtained by Babajide and Olayiwola (2014), Gomaa et al (2015) and Eissa et al (2016) Respecting the interaction effect between shrubs species and compost rates, the results in Tables (3 and 4) showed that there was significant interaction on all studied characters, where application of compost manure for Atriplex nummularia recorded the highest mean values of shrub height of 119.40 and 126.08 cm, number of branches/plants of 11.08 and 11.73 branches, crown coverage of 0.929 and 0.506 m 2 and crown volume of 0.363 and 0.260 m 3 in spring and autumn growing seasons of 2017 and 2018, respectively, followed by the same type of shrub (Atriplex nummularia) and 5 ton compost/fed in both growing seasons. While the lowest values obtained when fertilizing Medicago arborea with no application of compost manure in the two seasons.…”

“…The soil was amended with compost manure at the rates of 0, 15 and 30 t/ha to evaluate its role on crop growth and nutrient uptake. Application of compost significantly improved biomass yield, protein (%) and ash content (%) of Atriplex amnicola (Eissa et al, 2016).…”

Compost Enhances Forage Yield and Quality of River Saltbush in Arid Conditions

“…Atriplex spp. has a high content of crude protein and is valuable as animal feed ingredients [9,10]. Halophyte plants are promising, due to their potential of being a feed resource, especially in arid regions and poor soils [6].…”

Effects and Mechanism of Continuous Liming on Cadmium Immobilization and Uptake by Rice Grown on Acid Paddy Soils

“…Soil pH is extremely important for the activity and adsorption of toxic metals in the soil (Dinesh and Kumar 2006;Adhikari and Singh 2008;Choppala et al 2013;Azouzi et al 2015). Therefore, since most of these toxic metals are less soluble under alkaline conditions, increasing soil pH has become a common procedure for repairing heavy metal-contaminated soils (Adriano 2001;Eissa et al 2016;Eissa 2019;Almaroai and Eissa 2020). However, if the soil pH is too high it would cause dissolution of heavy metals.…”