Yielding and Heavy Metals Accumulation in the Biomass of Grass Cultivated in Substrata with the Participation of Municipal Sewage Sludge and Green Waste Compost

Abstract

During a six-year study on the influence of sewage sludge and green waste compost (in a dose of 20 Mg TS•ha -1 ) on yielding and heavy metals accumulation, Festuca arundinacea lawn mixture was used, consisting of 60% Festuca arundinacea of type Asterix + 15% Poa pratensis of type Opal + 15% Festuca rubra of type Areta + 10% Lolium perenne of type Pimperal. The subject of the study was the effect of these materials on yielding, changes in species composition of the sward, and the contents of copper, nickel, lead, and zinc in the aboveground parts of plants. The materials varied according to the fertilizing value and heavy metals content. Sewage sludge was rich in fertilizing components but also highly contaminated with heavy metals. Green waste compost contained large amounts of sand and the content of metals was slightly higher than in the subsoil to which it had been incorporated. The studied materials were found to have a stimulative effect on yielding plants. Yields obtained under the influence of sewage sludge and compost were similar. Changes in the species composition of the sward were connected to the durability of particular grass species used in the mixture. Despite the varied loads of heavy metals that were incorporated into soil with the used materials, they did not cause any significant increase of metals content in substratum, with the exclusion of copper incorporated into soil with sludge. Loads of metals incorporated into soil with sludge caused a significant increase of nickel and zinc in the aboveground parts of grass compared to the content of these metals in other variants of the experiment. The study found varied levels of metals uptake from soil by plants. The substratum with metals-contaminated sewage sludge demonstrated the highest uptake.

Are Grasses Really Useful for the Phytoremediation of Potentially Toxic Trace Elements? A Review

“…Grasses mix = Festuca arundinacea , Festuca rubra , Lolium perenne , and Poa pratensis . The data of the biomass yield and metals concentration used to plot this figure were extracted from Robinson et al (1997) ; Zhang et al (2014) , Kitczak et al (2016) ; Jacobs et al (2018) , Rusinowski et al (2019) , and Zhou et al (2020) .…”

Kireçli Bir Mera Toprağında Arıtma Çamuru Dozlarının ve Uygulama Zamanının Ekstrakte Edilebilir Metal Konsantrasyonuna Etkisi

“…The toxic effect of heavy metals from sewage sludge on agricultural soils is largely dependent on factors such as the heavy metal concentration of sludge, amount of sludge applied, soil pH, rate of sludge decomposition, climatic and soil properties (Singh and Kumar, 2014;Kitczak et al, 2016;Zahedifar et al, 2017). Compared with the allowable critical values, the heavy metal content of the sludge used in the study is found to be low under Turkey law (Anonymous, 2005).…”

Effect of topdressing of compost, compost tea, and various fertilizers on soil and lawn characteristics

“…1995; Beesley & Dickinson, 2010;Kitczak et al, 2016). In the event that the compost is not processed correctly, pesticides may not be fully degraded (Fogarty & Tuovinen, 1991).…”

“…Other concerns about compost include delivering weed seed to the site of application through less than ideal conditions during the composting process (Bertin & Weston, 2004) and the presence of heavy metals, though the concentrations typically remain lower in green waste compost than in composted municipal biosolids (Richard & Chadsey, 1990; Lisk et al., 1992; Fricke & Vogtmann, 1994; Giusquiani et al., 1995; Beesley & Dickinson, 2010; Kitczak et al., 2016). In the event that the compost is not processed correctly, pesticides may not be fully degraded (Fogarty & Tuovinen, 1991).…”