A two-year field study of nickel-agromining using Odontarrhena chalcidica co-cropped with a legume on an ultramafic soil: temporal variation in plant biomass, nickel yields and taxonomic and bacterial functional diversity

Aims Agromining aims to improve the fertility of naturally metal-rich soils by extracting metals, such as nickel (Ni), using hyperaccumulator plants. Ultramafic soils are characterized by low fertility levels, limiting hyperaccumulator yields. Here, we characterize the potential benefits for phytoex...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Saad, R. F., Echevarria, Guillaume, Rodríguez-Garrido, Beatriz, Kidd, Petra Susan, Benizri, E.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/245653
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/245653
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Agromining
Nickel
Hyperaccumulator
High throughput sequencing
Bacterial functional diversity Tax4Fun
Descripción
Sumario:Aims Agromining aims to improve the fertility of naturally metal-rich soils by extracting metals, such as nickel (Ni), using hyperaccumulator plants. Ultramafic soils are characterized by low fertility levels, limiting hyperaccumulator yields. Here, we characterize the potential benefits for phytoextraction efficiency of cocropping a Ni-hyperaccumulator (Odontarrhena chalcidica) and a legume (Vicia sativa), following a two-year field experiment. Methods A two-year field experiment was set up in an ultramafic zone in North-West Spain. Three treatments were tested: co-cropping, fertilized control with ammonium nitrate and non-fertilized control. Results Over the 2 years, co-cropping increased O. chalcidica’s biomass by 24% and 403% compared to fertilized and non-fertilized controls, respectively. Moreover, co-cropping had higher Ni-yields for both years, while fertilization had a negative effect on soil parameters. A non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis of the operational taxonomic units showed that the soil bacterial diversity changed over time. Soil exchangeable Ni and organic carbon influenced the phyla’s relative abundance. Metabolic genes were dominant and their relative abundances increased over time with co-cropping. Conclus i o n Pluriannua l co-cropping of a hyperaccumulator with a legume improved both hyperaccumulator and Ni yields. In contrast, mineral fertilization was shown to be detrimental to some soil microbial parameters. Thus, ameliorating agromining by replacing mineral fertilizers would combine an eco-efficient strategy with sustainable metal recovery.