Zinc, copper and nickel concentrations in ryegrass grown on sewage sludge‐contaminated soils of different pH

Abstract

Abstract Sewage sludges containing high concentrations of zinc, copper and nickel were added separately to samples of two soils, a silty clay loam and a sandy loam, on which pH levels between 4.5 and 7.5 had been established; there were also treatments with sludge of low metal content or no‐sludge. Soil‐sludge mixtures were either continuously cropped with ryegrass or kept uncropped in pots in the glasshouse for 6 months. Zinc and nickel concentrations in 0.1 μM calcium chloride extracts of soils from the cropped pots and in solutions displaced from the fallow pots decreased with increasing pH over the range tested, but copper concentrations remained steady above pH 5.5; individual metal concentrations in ryegrass tops followed the same pattern with pH as those in extracted solutions. Squared correlation coefficients ( R 7 ) between shoot metal concentrations and concentrations of metals in EDTA, DPTA or calcium chloride extracts or displaced solutions, when taken over all soil, pH and sludge treatments, were >0.60 ( P <0.001). Ryegrass yield reductions occurred on soils contaminated with each of the three metal sludges when soil pH was 5.5 or below.