Search

The accumulation of six pharmaceuticals of different therapeutic uses has been thoroughly investigated and compared between onion, spinach, and radish plants grown in six soil types. While neutral molecules (e.g., carbamazepine (CAR) and some of its metabolites) were efficiently accumulated and easily translocated to the plant leaves (onion > radish > spinach), the same for ionic (both anionic and cationic) molecules seems to be minor to moderate. The maximum accumulation of CAR crosses 38,000 (onion), 42,000 (radish), and 7000 (spinach) ng g−1 (dry weight) respectively, in which the most majority of them happened within the plant leaves. Among the metabolites, the accumulation of carbamazepine 10,11-epoxide (EPC — a primary CAR metabolite) was approximately 19,000 (onion), 7000 (radish), and 6000 (spinach) ng g−1 (dry weight) respectively. This trend was considerably similar even when all these pharmaceuticals applied together. The accumulation of most other molecules (e.g., citalopram, clindamycin, clindamycin sulfoxide, fexofenadine, irbesartan, and sulfamethoxazole) was restricted to plant roots, except for certain cases (e.g., clindamycin and clindamycin sulfoxide in onion leaves). Our results clearly demonstrated the potential role of this accumulation process on the entrance of pharmaceuticals/metabolites into the food chain, which eventually becomes a threat to associated living biota. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focused on the gradual effect of repeated applications of sewage sludge or composted sewage sludge, and continuous irrigation with reclaimed wastewater on the H2O and CO2 effluxes from soils over a 3-year period. The net H2O and CO2 effluxes were measured at the surface of nine beds with two different soils (Cambisol and Arenosol). Both biosolids were added into the Cambisol beds every year before plants’ planting or sowing. One bed was enriched with sewage sludge and two beds with composted sewage sludge. The other two Cambisol and one Arenosol beds were irrigated with reclaimed wastewater. The remaining two Cambisol and one Arenosol beds were irrigated with tap water. In 2021, all three beds with biosolids were irrigated with tap water. In 2022 and 2023, sludge-bed and both compost-beds were irrigated with tap water and wastewater, respectively. Both biosolids positively affected the CO2 emission. While the positive effect of compost increased over time, the effect of sludge was similar every year. The higher CO2 efflux values ​​were mostly recorded for the beds irrigated with wastewater than for the beds irrigated with tap water in 2022 and 2023. However, the datapoints expressing the relationship between these treatments were more scattered than those for the biosolids versus tap water treatments. Therefore, the trendlines could not clearly demonstrate this effect. Different treatments had negligible effect on the H2O efflux except values measured in 2022 when mostly greater values were measured for beds irrigated with tap water than those for other beds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to elucidate the influence of long-term ecological farming on selected soil properties by comparing results obtained in the field with continuous conventional farming (CT) and those obtained in the field where the original CT was converted into ecological farming system with no-till practice (NT) twelve years earlier. Soil water retention curves were obtained for 100 cm3 undisturbed soil samples using a pressure plate apparatus. Hydraulic conductivity and the repellency index were assessed directly in the field using a mini disk infiltrometer. The examined soil properties showed that NT mostly had a positive influence on the soil quality. The soil water retention capacity represented by the saturated soil water content of 0.32 and 0.40 cm3 cm−3 and the reciprocal of the air-entry pressure head of 0.0227 and 0.0187 cm for CT and NT, respectively, was higher in the NT field than in the CT field. The soil physical quality, represented by the slope of the soil water retention curve at the inflection point of 0.033 (CT) and 0.047 (NT), was better under NT than CT. The hydraulic conductivity at the pressure head of –2 cm was higher in the NT field (0.97 cm hr.−1) than in the CT field (0.17 cm hr.−1). On the other hand, ecological farming increased water repellency (repellency index of 6.73 and 18.91 for CT and NT, respectively). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soils can be contaminated by pharmaceuticals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of soil conditions (influencing sorption and persistence of pharmaceuticals in soils) and plant type on the root uptake of selected pharmaceuticals and their transformation in plant-soil systems. Four plants (lamb's lettuce, spinach, arugula, radish) planted in 3 soils were irrigated for 20 days (26) with water contaminated by one of 3 pharmaceuticals (carbamazepine, atenolol, sulfamethoxazole) or their mixture. The concentrations of pharmaceuticals and their metabolites in soils and plant tissues were evaluated after the harvest. Sulfamethoxazole and atenolol dissipated rapidly from soils. The larger concentrations of both compounds and an atenolol metabolite were found in roots than in leaves. Sulfamethoxazole metabolites were below the limits of quantifications. Carbamazepine was stable in soils, easily uptaken, accumulated, and metabolized in plant leaves. The efficiency of radish and arugula (both family Brassicaceae) in metabolizing was very low contrary to the high and moderate efficiencies of lamb's lettuce and spinach, respectively. Compounds' transformations mostly masked the soil impact on their accumulation in plant tissues. The negative relationships were found between the carbamazepine sorption coefficients and its concentrations in roots of radish, lamb's lettuce, and spinach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides earthworm population data obtained from localities with a substantial anthropogenic impact spoils. The spoil heaps were reclaimed at the end of an opencast brown coal mining period. We studied spoils reclaimed by the two most commonly used reclamation processes: forestry and agricultural. The results show the significance of the locality age and the utilized reclamation process and treatment and their effect on earthworm communities. Our data indicate that apart from soil physical and chemical properties, the reclamation process itself may also induce viability and distribution of earthworm communities. Under standardized soil properties, the changes in earthworm populations during the succession were larger within the agricultural reclamation process as opposed to the forestry reclamation process for earthworm ecological groups and individual species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]