Plant, Soil and Environment, 2024 (vol. 70), issue 7
Mitigation of arsenic toxicity in rice grain through soil-water-plant continuumReview
Okram Ricky Devi, Bibek Laishram, Abhijit Debnath, Gangadhara Doggalli, Nayanjyoti Ojha, Smita Agrawal, Kahkashan Perveen, Najat A. Bukhari, Kalyan Pathak, Samiron Dutta
Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(7):395-406 | DOI: 10.17221/470/2023-PSE 
Increased levels of the non-essential hazardous metalloid arsenic (As) in rice grains pose a threat to human health and the sustainability of the rice industry. In several counties, the average As contamination in polished rice has been detected to range from 0.002 to 0.39 mg/kg, which is above the safe limit of 1 mg/kg as recommended by the World Health Organisation. Beyond this limit, the digestive tract, circulatory system, skin, liver, kidney, nervous system and heart can be affected. Humans can develop cancer from consuming or inhaling As. In addition, long-term exposure to drinking water contaminated with arsenic has also been linked to a dose-response...
Copper contamination in agricultural soils: A review of the effects of climate, soil properties, and prolonged copper pesticide application in vineyards and orchardsReview
Alexander Neaman, Jorge-Tomás Schoffer, Claudia Navarro-Villarroel, Céline Pelosi, Patricia Peñaloza, Elvira Dovletyarova, Jerusa Schneider
Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(7):407-417 | DOI: 10.17221/501/2023-PSE
Copper contamination stemming from copper-based pesticides poses a grave concern in vineyards and orchards, causing toxicity to soil organisms. Here, we present a comprehensive review of global data encompassing copper levels in these soils, coupled with variables such as the age of agricultural establishments, climate, soil organic matter content, soil pH, and farming practices (organic vs. conventional). The results suggest that there are three pivotal determinants driving copper content in vineyard and orchard soils: climate, the age of agricultural establishments, and soil organic matter content. It was impossible to estimate soil pH’s effect...
The influence of timing and planting proportion on the intraspecific competitiveness ability of drunken horse grass (Achnatherum inebrians (Hance) Keng) by fungal endophyte infectionOriginal Paper
Jianxin Cao, Xiang Yao, Xuekai Wei, Ruochen Zhang, Jing Liu, Chunjie Li
Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(7):418-429 | DOI: 10.17221/9/2024-PSE
Drunken horse grass (Achnatherum inebrians (Hance) Keng) is a toxic perennial bunchgrass native to Northwestern China. Epichloë endophytic fungi infection could enhance the stress tolerance of drunken horse grass. However, there is a scarcity of literature regarding the effects of intraspecific competition. As a result, we anticipated that the intraspecific competitive dynamics between endophyte-infected (EI) and endophyte-free (EF) plants would become more transparent for four years by planted as the proportions of 2 : 1, 1 : 1, and 1 : 2. The results showed the EI plants exhibited more biomass, seed...
Camera-guided inter-row hoeing in winter oilseed rape with different inter-inter-row spacingOriginal Paper
Roland Gerhards, Marcus Saile, Michael Spaeth
Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(7):430-437 | DOI: 10.17221/485/2023-PSE
New cropping practices such as single-grain seeding, lower seed densities with stronger cultivars, wide inter-row spacings and camera-guided side-shift control for weed hoeing facilitate mechanical weed control in oilseed rape. In a two-year field study in Southwestern Germany, camera-guided inter-row hoeing was compared to standard herbicide treatments and untreated control. Seeding with 12.5, 25 and 50 cm inter-row spacing was included as a second factor in the experiment. Weed and crop density were measured directly after treatment. Weed and crop biomass, oilseed rape root diameter and nitrogen uptake were assessed before winter. Seed yield was...
Adjusting the sowing date of fresh maize to promote grain filling, key starch synthesis enzymes, and yieldOriginal Paper
Lin An, Hailong Wei, Yi Cheng, Jun Zou, Jin Zuo, Dailing Liu, Bi Song
Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(7):438-453 | DOI: 10.17221/490/2023-PSE
Clarifying the effects of meteorological factors on the growth and development of fresh maize after delayed sowing is important for selecting appropriate sowing dates and improving yield. Six sowing dates (B1 (March 10); B2 (March 20); B3 (March 30); B4 (April 9); B5 (April 19), and B6 (April 29)) and three fresh maize cultivars (A1 (Wan Nuo 2000); A2 (Nongke Nuo 336), and A3 (Caitian Nuo 6)) were chosen for experiments conducted between 2021 and 2022 in Guiyang, Qingzhen City, China. The results showed that the whole growth period and sowing-silking period were significantly reduced with delayed sowing, while the grain-filling period was relatively...
Poly-glutamic acid mitigates the negative effects of salt stress on wheat seedlings by regulating the photosynthetic performance, water physiology, antioxidant metabolism and ion homeostasisOriginal Paper
Qidi Zhu, Yanyan Li, Niuniu Zhang, Yilin Wu, Xingqi Ou
Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(7):454-467 | DOI: 10.17221/114/2024-PSE
o uncover the regulatory metabolism of poly-glutamic acid (PGA) in protecting wheat crops against salt stress (SS) at the physiological level, we utilised hydroponic experiments to explore the roles of PGA in regulating the photosynthetic performance, water physiology, antioxidant metabolism and ion homeostasis of wheat seedlings exposed to SS for 10 days. The findings demonstrated that SS inhibited the photosynthetic performance of wheat seedlings. In contrast, different doses of PGA all improved the photosynthetic performance, especially for 0.3% PGA. Compared with SS, 0.3% PGA plus SS decreased nonphotochemical quenching (qN) by 26.3%...
Biostimulants and herbicides shape the structure of potato tuber yieldOriginal Paper
Krystyna Zarzecka, Marek Gugała
Plant Soil Environ., 2024, 70(7):468-473 | DOI: 10.17221/103/2024-PSE
The aim of the study was to assess the impact of three biostimulants and a herbicide on selected unit parameters of potato yield. The research results came from a three-year field experiment that was established using the randomised sub-blocks method in three replications. In the experiment, two cultivars of edible potato were grown and the yield-protective effect of treatments was assessed: (1) control object without protection with preparations; (2) herbicide clomazone + metribuzin; (3) biostimulant PlonoStart and herbicide clomazone + metribuzin; (4) biostimulant Aminoplant and herbicide clomazone + metribuzin, and (5) biostimulant Agro-Sorb Folium...