干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

With widely applied water-saving irrigation techniques, the transformation and availabilities of copper (Cu) as both a micronutrient and a toxic metal are changed. However, little information is available on the binding forms, bioavailability, and fate of Cu in paddy fields with different irrigation management. Thus, we investigated the effects of irrigation management on the binding forms and the fate of Cu in a non-polluted paddy soil.

Field experiments were conducted in 2011 on non-polluted rice fields in Kunshan, East China. Non-flooding controlled irrigation (NFI) was applied in three replications, with flooding irrigation as a control. Samples of soil, soil solution, irrigation water, and rice plants were collected. Fresh soil samples were digested using the modified European Community Bureau of Reference sequential extraction procedure and the dried crop samples digested at 160 A degrees C using concentrated HNO3. Cu contents in irrigation water, soil solution, extraction for different binding fractions, and the digested solutions were measured using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. Leaching loss of Cu was calculated based on the Cu contents in 47- to 54-cm soil solutions and deep percolation rates, which were calculated using the field water balance principle.

NFI led to multiple dry-wet cycles and high soil redox potential in surface soil. The dry-wet cycles in NFI soil resulted in higher Cu contents in acid-extractable and oxidizable forms and lower Cu in residual form. High decomposition and mineralization rates of soil organic matter caused by the dry-wet cycles partially accounted for the increased Cu in acid-extractable form in NFI soils. The frequently high contents of Cu in reducible form in NFI fields might be due to the enhanced transformation of Fe and Mn oxides. As a result, Cu uptakes in NFI fields increased by 8.1 %. Meanwhile, Cu inputs by irrigation and loss by leaching in NFI fields were reduced by 47.6 and 46.6 %.

NFI enhanced the transformation of Cu from residual to oxidizable and acid-extractable forms. The oxidizable form plays a more important role than the reducible form in determining the transformation of Cu from the immobile to the mobile forms in NFI soils. NFI helps improve availability and decreases leaching loss of Cu as a micronutrient in a non-polluted paddy soil, but leads to a high concentration of Cu in rice.