Suzie M Reichman
University of Melbourne, School of BioSciences, Faculty Member
- Soil Science, Soil Chemistry, Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition, Heavy Metal Pollution, Biogeochemistry, Trace element Geochemistry, and 23 moreTrace Elements, Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Removal Of Heavy Metals In Contaminated Soils, Environmental Remediation, Soil contamination, Phytoremediation, Environmental Chemistry, Ecotoxicology, Plant Biology, Botany, Heavy metals, Trace Metals, Urban Soils, Arsenic, Mercury, Biogeochemistry of mercury, Sediments, Manganese, Lead pollution, Vanadium, Soil sciences, and Metalsedit
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ABSTRACT The use of Cu-based fungicide can pose a risk to nearby surface water bodies due to the run-off of accumulated Cu from agricultural soils. In 2008, we conducted a reconnaissance survey of the presence and concentration of copper... more
ABSTRACT The use of Cu-based fungicide can pose a risk to nearby surface water bodies due to the run-off of accumulated Cu from agricultural soils. In 2008, we conducted a reconnaissance survey of the presence and concentration of copper in sediments at 18 sites within the Yarra River Catchment, an important horticultural production system in south-eastern Australia. Observed Cu concentrations in sediment samples from the study sites (mean (95 % confidence interval) 12.0 (10.6–13.6) mg/kg dry weight) were similar to the concentrations present in the samples from the reference sites (mean (95 % confidence interval) 12.0 (6.7–16.8) mg/kg dry weight). The data on Cu and other metals in the sediments suggest that that there is unlikely to have been wide spread, diffuse, off-site transport of Cu from the soils of horticultural properties to nearby surface waterways in the Yarra River Catchment and that that observed sediment metal concentrations are unlikely to pose an ecological risk to sediment-dwelling organisms at the study sites.
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The application of biosolids to land is increasing because it provides an alternative means of waste disposal and benefits the soil via improved .soil fertility and productivity. However, the metals present in biosolids are potential... more
The application of biosolids to land is increasing because it provides an alternative means of waste disposal and benefits the soil via improved .soil fertility and productivity. However, the metals present in biosolids are potential concerns for environmental and public health, arising from the possibility of metal accumulation in soils and their introduction into the food chain via plant uptake. The success of environmental risk assessments of metal contaminated soils depends on the accuracy with which they estimate metal bioavailability. Diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) combined with 2D-DIFS (DGT-induced fluxes in soils) is a relatively new technique for measuring labile metals in soils and is characteristically expressed as the effective solution metal concentrations (CE). This technique has shown to be a promising surrogate for predicting metal uptake in plants and is being extensively examined using three soil types collected from the Canterbury region. Lysimeters (cont...
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Finding a reliable method to predict soil metal bioavailability in aged soil continues to be one of the most important problems in contaminated soil chemistry. To investigate the bioavailability of metals aged in soils, we used roadside... more
Finding a reliable method to predict soil metal bioavailability in aged soil continues to be one of the most important problems in contaminated soil chemistry. To investigate the bioavailability of metals aged in soils, we used roadside soils that had accumulated metals from vehicle emissions over a range of years. We collected topsoil (0–10 cm) samples representing new-, medium- and old-aged roadside soils and control site soil. These soils were studied to compare the ability of the diffusive gradients in thin films technique (DGT), soil water extraction, CaCl2 extraction, total metal concentrations and optimised linear models to predict metal bioavailability in wheat plants. The response time for the release of metals and the effect on metal bioavailability in field aged soils was also studied. The DGT, and extractable metals such as CaCl2 extractable and soil solution metals in soil, were not well correlated with metal concentrations in wheat shoots. In comparison, the strongest ...
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In recent times, there has been increased focus on a holistic approach to soil remediation with consideration of social, economic and environmental factors. Consequently, there is a demand from practitioners and regulators alike for... more
In recent times, there has been increased focus on a holistic approach to soil remediation with consideration of social, economic and environmental factors. Consequently, there is a demand from practitioners and regulators alike for suitable ways to measure ancillary outcomes, for example, effects on soil quality. Here we show that biochar, when applied to land to remediate lead (Pb)-contaminated soils, can lead to environmental improvements not realized by adding mined or manufactured phosphates. Here, we study a Pb-contaminated soil amended with two phosphate fertilizers (slow- and fast-release) and with biochars produced from poultry litter and from biosolids at three temperatures (300 °C, 400 °C and 500 °C). The results show that, unlike the fast-release P fertilizer, biochars did not result in an increase in the amount of leachable P that could be released into the environment. Biochars prepared at 500 °C presented a higher value of the integrative geometric mean of soil enzyme...
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Rice-based products are widely used to feed infants and young children. However, the association of rice-based products and high arsenic (As) concentrations have been investigated in a number of studies, but there is limited information... more
Rice-based products are widely used to feed infants and young children. However, the association of rice-based products and high arsenic (As) concentrations have been investigated in a number of studies, but there is limited information from Australia. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the As concentration and dietary exposure in infant rice milk, cereal, crackers and pasta as well as to investigate the relationship between As concentration and rice content, rice type and product origin. Total arsenic (tAs) concentrations were determined by nitric acid digestion and ICP-MS while inorganic arsenic (iAs) was determined by acid extraction, followed by ICP-MS with an interfaced hydride generation system. Nearly 75% of samples had inorganic As exceeding the EU maximum levels for infants and children (0.1 mg kg−1) and the mean iAs percentage of total reached as high as 84.8%. High tAs concentration was positively correlated with rice content and also related to brown (...
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Gardening and urban food production is an increasingly popular activity, which can improve physical and mental health and provide low cost nutritious food. However, the legacy of contamination from industrial and diffuse sources may have... more
Gardening and urban food production is an increasingly popular activity, which can improve physical and mental health and provide low cost nutritious food. However, the legacy of contamination from industrial and diffuse sources may have rendered surface soils in some urban gardens to have metals value in excess of recommended guidelines for agricultural production. The objective of this study was to establish the presence and spatial extent of soil metal contamination in Melbourne's residential and inner city community gardens. A secondary objective was to assess whether soil lead (Pb) concentrations in residential vegetable gardens were associated with the age of the home or the presence or absence of paint. The results indicate that most samples in residential and community gardens were generally below the Australian residential guidelines for all tested metals except Pb. Mean soil Pb concentrations exceeded the Australian HIL-A residential guideline of 300 mg/kg in 8% of 13 ...
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ABSTRACT Bradyrhizobium japonicum strain CB1809 was recently identified as a plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria in high arsenic substrate. However, it is not known if B. japonicum has growth promoting properties in plant species other... more
ABSTRACT Bradyrhizobium japonicum strain CB1809 was recently identified as a plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria in high arsenic substrate. However, it is not known if B. japonicum has growth promoting properties in plant species other than its leguminous host or the bacterium's tolerance to arsenic and metals. Solution culture was used to test the response of sunflower (Helianthus annus L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to B. japonicum inoculation under elevated arsenic. The resazurin assay was used to determine the tolerance of B. japonicum to bioavailable heavy metals in solution. Inoculated sunflower and wheat were more tolerant of arsenic than uninoculated treatments. Thus, the growth promoting attributes of B. japonicum are not limited by the legume-rhizobium symbiosis. The concentration of indolic compounds did not differ between inoculated and uninoculated treatments suggesting the growth-promoting mechanism is not mediated by auxin. The effective concentrations for a 50% decrease in activity were arsenic >50 μM, cadmium 5.8 μM, copper 0.86 μM, manganese 83 μM, nickel 7.4 μM and zinc 29 μM. These results suggest B. japonicum has potential as a plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium for a range of plant species in arsenic contaminated sites and possibly for sites contaminated with other heavy metals.
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Understanding ambient background concentrations in soil, at a local scale, is an essential part of environmental risk assessment. Where high resolution geochemical soil surveys have not been undertaken, soil data from alternative sources,... more
Understanding ambient background concentrations in soil, at a local scale, is an essential part of environmental risk assessment. Where high resolution geochemical soil surveys have not been undertaken, soil data from alternative sources, such as environmental site assessment reports, can be used to support an understanding of ambient background conditions. Concentrations of metals/metalloids (As, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) were extracted from open-source environmental site assessment reports, for soils derived from the Newer Volcanics basalt, of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. A manual screening method was applied to remove samples that were indicated to be contaminated by point sources and hence not representative of ambient background conditions. The manual screening approach was validated by comparison to data from a targeted background soil survey. Statistical methods for exclusion of contaminated samples from background soil datasets were compared to the manual screening method. The statistical methods tested included the Median plus Two Median Absolute Deviations, the upper whisker of a normal and log transformed Tukey boxplot, the point of inflection on a cumulative frequency plot and the 95th percentile. We have demonstrated that where anomalous sample results cannot be screened using site information, the Median plus Two Median Absolute Deviations is a conservative method for derivation of ambient background upper concentration limits (i.e. expected maximums). The upper whisker of a boxplot and the point of inflection on a cumulative frequency plot, were also considered adequate methods for deriving ambient background upper concentration limits, where the percentage of contaminated samples is <25%. Median ambient background concentrations of metals/metalloids in the Newer Volcanic soils of Melbourne were comparable to ambient background concentrations in Europe and the United States, except for Ni, which was naturally enriched in the basalt-derived soils of Melbourne.
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The planet Earth is suffering from an ever-escalating rate of pollution. It was not until the twentieth century that mankind was seriously concerned about pollution. But now pollution has reached to such a signifi cant level that is infl... more
The planet Earth is suffering from an ever-escalating rate of pollution. It was not until the twentieth century that mankind was seriously concerned about pollution. But now pollution has reached to such a signifi cant level that is infl uencing all ecological compartments. There are many types of pollution. Among these most important are i.e. soil pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, and water pollution. Concerns about soil pollution have increased in the recent decades. Soil pollution has deteriorated large areas of agricultural land around the globe. It is due to soil pollution that soil biodiversity is declining. Human health is also at risk due to high concentration of pollutants found in soil. Vegetation grown on polluted soil is also contaminated to varying degrees. Simple and cost effective solution to soil pollution is bioremediation. It is an effi cient technique in which hyper-accumulator plants and native plants along with bacteria and other microorganisms are grown in polluted soils. These organisms absorb and or degrade pollutants and enhance soil quality. As the bioavailability of nutrients increase, soil functioning improves. Bioremediation can be performed using a large number of techniques including biostimulation, bioaugmentation, phytoremediation, mycoremediation etc. This chapter deals with soil pollution, its possible causes and adverse environmental effects. The chapter is concluded with bioremediation as a potential alternative for soil cleanup with possible future recommendations.
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Research Interests: Chemical Ecology, Invertebrates, Biological Sciences, Heavy metals, Environmental Sciences, and 15 moreSelenium, Animals, Heavy Metal, Plants, Zinc, Nickel, Feeding Behavior, Meta Analysis, PLANT DEFENSE, CHEMICAL SCIENCES, Random Effects Model, Random-Effects Models, Bayes Theorem, Choice Behavior, and Fixed effects model
A greater understanding of rhizosphere biogeochemistry is likely to improve our understanding of the factors that drive bioavailability of heavy metals in growth substrates. A glasshouse study was conducted that investigated the impacts... more
A greater understanding of rhizosphere biogeochemistry is likely to improve our understanding of the factors that drive bioavailability of heavy metals in growth substrates. A glasshouse study was conducted that investigated the impacts of three growth substrates (topsoil, oxidised mining waste and unoxidised mining waste) and four species of New Zealand trees on the rhizosphere concentrations of arsenic, copper and zinc. In many of the substrate by species treatments the concentration of heavy metals was lower in the rhizosphere than in the bulk substrate. In addition, for a given plant species, where rhizosphere concentrations were significantly different to the bulk concentration, the rhizosphere concentration correlated better with plant shoot concentrations (i.e. bioavailability) than they bulk concentrations of heavy metals. In particular, the rhizosphere concentrations were good predictors of plant copper concentrations.
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The application of biosolids to land is increasing because it provides an alternative means of waste disposal and benefits the soil via improved .soil fertility and productivity. However, the metals present in biosolids are potential... more
The application of biosolids to land is increasing because it provides an alternative means of waste disposal and benefits the soil via improved .soil fertility and productivity. However, the metals present in biosolids are potential concerns for environmental and public health, arising from the possibility of metal accumulation in soils and their introduction into the food chain via plant uptake. The success of environmental risk assessments of metal contaminated soils depends on the accuracy with which they estimate metal bioavailability. Diffusive gradients in thin6films (DGT) combined with 2D6DIFS (DGT6induced fluxes in soils) is a relatively new technique for measuring labile metals in soils and is characteristically expressed as the effective solution metal concentrations (C E). This technique has shown to be a promising surrogate for predicting metal uptake in plants and is being extensively examined using three soil types collected from the Canterbury region. Lysimeters (con...
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* The existing literature is ambiguous as to whether the diurnal pulse in phytosiderophore (PS) release in the Poaceae is mediated by light or temperature, or both. * Here, wheat (Triticum aestivum cv. Yecora Rojo) seedlings were grown in... more
* The existing literature is ambiguous as to whether the diurnal pulse in phytosiderophore (PS) release in the Poaceae is mediated by light or temperature, or both. * Here, wheat (Triticum aestivum cv. Yecora Rojo) seedlings were grown in Fe-sufficient (pFe = 16.5) and Fe-deficient (pFe = 17.8) chelator-buffered nutrient solutions. Six different light/temperature regimes were tested over 8 d in paired growth chambers. * Phytosiderophore release patterns under a square-wave light regime were similar, irrespective of whether temperature was varied diurnally or held constant, but PS release was negligible when the light was removed. Release patterns of PS for Fe-deficient and Fe-sufficient plants grown under the square-wave vs ramped light and temperature regimes were similar in the corresponding Fe treatments. * Our results strongly support the notion that the diurnal pulse in PS release in the Poaceae is mainly mediated by changes in light rather than temperature. Our comparison of square-wave with more natural ramped light/temperature regimes suggests that the diurnal response patterns of PS release in wheat can be confidently studied using traditional square-wave regimes, and this is likely to be the case with other Poaceae as well.
Research Interests: Biological Sciences, Circadian Rhythm, Siderophores, Light, Temperature, and 3 moreIron, Poaceae, and Triticum
Research Interests: Membranes, Calcium, Biological Sciences, ROOT, Cell, and 10 morePotassium, Plant Roots, Ion, Sodium, Seedling, Fabaceae, Time Factors, Osmosis, Sodium Chloride, and Ions
Rice is an important route of arsenic (As) exposure to humans, especially populations with rice-based diets. Human health risk of As varies greatly with rice variety and country of origin. The purpose of the present study was to determine... more
Rice is an important route of arsenic (As) exposure to humans, especially populations with rice-based diets. Human health risk of As varies greatly with rice variety and country of origin. The purpose of the present study was to determine total and speciated As in Australian-grown and imported rice on sale in Australia to assess their health risk to consumers. The total As (tAs) concentrations in Australian-grown organic brown, medium grain brown, and organic white rice were 438±23, 287±03, and 283±18 μg kg(-1) dry weight (d wt), respectively. In Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani, and Thai rice imported and on sale in Australia, tAs concentrations were 56±05, 92±10, 82±06 and 172±24 μg kg(-1), respectively. Asian rice contained mainly inorganic As (iAs; 86-99%), whereas 18-26% of the tAs in Australian-grown rice was dimethylarsinic acid (DMA). Relatively higher concentrations of tAs in Australian-grown rice than that in imported rice of Asian origin suggest that Australian-grown rice m...
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ABSTRACT This paper questions whether the presence of biosolids amendment in metal-spiked soils alters the outcome of soil-based assays of metal bioavailability. The effects of biosolids amendment on the efficacies of six soil metal... more
ABSTRACT This paper questions whether the presence of biosolids amendment in metal-spiked soils alters the outcome of soil-based assays of metal bioavailability. The effects of biosolids amendment on the efficacies of six soil metal bioavailability assays (total recoverable, EDTA, Ca(NO3)2, soil solution, diffusive gradient in thin films and free ion activity) were assessed against metal concentrations in wheat shoots (Triticum aestivum) germinated in three contrasting soils, each previously incubated for either 2 weeks or 6 months following treatment with Cd, Cu, Ni and Zn +/− biosolids amendment. Overall, Ca(NO3)2 was the most accurate method to predict Cd (r2 = 0.62), Ni (r2 = 0.73) and Zn (r2 = 0.55) bioavailability in soils and therefore was used to compare variations in responses between biosolids and nonbiosolids-amended soils. Comparisons between these two groups revealed no significant differences in linear relationships for all four metals and soil types assessed. These findings not only support Ca(NO3)2 as a robust and valid method for determining soil metal bioavailability across metal matrices and soil types, but also that the presence of biosolids does not compromise the predictive power of this assay or any of the others examined.
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A 24-month field lysimeter experiment using ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) grown in three soil types was used to investigate metal bioavailability dynamics following amendment with biosolids and metal salts (Cd, Cu, Ni, Zn). Common... more
A 24-month field lysimeter experiment using ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) grown in three soil types was used to investigate metal bioavailability dynamics following amendment with biosolids and metal salts (Cd, Cu, Ni, Zn). Common surrogates of soil metal bioavailability (total soil metal, EDTA, Ca(NO3)2, total dissolved, diffusive gradient in thin film, and modelled free ion activity) were determined on soil samples taken every 6 months. Ryegrass was also harvested every 6 months and analysed for metal concentrations. Across soils and treatments dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and pH decreased, whereas dissolved Ca and Mg increased with time. The free ion activity concentrations of each metal also increased over 24 months, whereas Ca(NO3)2-extracted metals were unchanged. Zinc presented the most changes in bioavailability status, with total Zn concentration decreasing over time, and EDTA-extractable and soil solution Zn increasing significantly by 1.82 mg kg–1 (1.1%) and 1.52 mg L–1 ...
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ABSTRACT The sustainable remediation of arsenic (As) contaminated sites requires an understanding of how As alters the biogeochemical processes in soil. Leguminous species are often used in the remediation of contaminated sites because of... more
ABSTRACT The sustainable remediation of arsenic (As) contaminated sites requires an understanding of how As alters the biogeochemical processes in soil. Leguminous species are often used in the remediation of contaminated sites because of their capacity to fix nitrogen and enhance site fertility. While excess As is known to reduce the formation of root nodules in legumes, currently, little is known about how the legume–rhizobium symbiosis is affected by high As concentrations. Soybean (Glycine max) cv. Curringa and its rhizobial symbiont, Bradyrhizobium japonicum strain CB1809, were studied in dilute solution culture at As concentrations of 0, 1, 5 and 10 μM. As the As concentration of the nutrient solution increased, greater time was required for inoculated plants to produce root nodules (P=0.001) and the number of root nodules per plant at harvest decreased (P=0.007). Inspection of the soybean roots showed the number of root hairs decreased as the As concentration in the solution increased. The dry weight of soybean roots and shoots decreased significantly as the As concentration of the nutrient solution increased (P<0.05). Inoculated plants had significantly larger dry weights than noninoculated plants (P<0.05) including a 38% greater biomass for inoculated vs. noninoculated plants in the 10 μM As treatment. The increased biomass in inoculated plants could not be explained by improved N nutrition nor decreased As absorption and it is hypothesised that B. japonicum stimulated the growth of soybean via the production of growth-promoting hormones. This is the first reported evidence of rhizobial bacteria promoting the growth of plants at elevated concentrations of a heavy metal via a mechanism other than improved nitrogen nutrition. The potential use of rhizobia as growth-promoting bacteria for the remediation of heavy metal contaminated sites is an exciting new area of research.