Soybean susceptibility to manufactured nanomaterials with evidence for food quality and soil fertility interruption

TLDR

Manufactured nanomaterials may alter soil-based food crop quality and yield, yet no study has yet examined full implications by growing plants to maturity in contaminated field soil. The study examined soybean grown to maturity in farm soil amended with nano‑CeO₂ and nano‑ZnO. Nano‑ZnO was taken up and distributed throughout edible tissues, while nano‑CeO₂ reduced plant growth and yield and shut down nitrogen fixation at high concentrations, warning of agricultural risks from MNM use.

Abstract

Based on previously published hydroponic plant, planktonic bacterial, and soil microbial community research, manufactured nanomaterial (MNM) environmental buildup could profoundly alter soil-based food crop quality and yield. However, thus far, no single study has at once examined the full implications, as no studies have involved growing plants to full maturity in MNM-contaminated field soil. We have done so for soybean, a major global commodity crop, using farm soil amended with two high-production metal oxide MNMs (nano-CeO 2 and -ZnO). The results provide a clear, but unfortunate, view of what could arise over the long term: ( i ) for nano-ZnO, component metal was taken up and distributed throughout edible plant tissues; ( ii ) for nano-CeO 2 , plant growth and yield diminished, but also ( iii ) nitrogen fixation—a major ecosystem service of leguminous crops—was shut down at high nano-CeO 2 concentration. Juxtaposed against widespread land application of wastewater treatment biosolids to food crops, these findings forewarn of agriculturally associated human and environmental risks from the accelerating use of MNMs.