Some effects of nitrogen nutrition on caesium uptake and translocation by species in the Poaceae, Asteraceae and Caryophyllidae

Willey, N.; Tang, S.

Abstract

There is current interest in managing and manipulating 137Cs transfer from soil to plants. We hypothesized that N source might affect Cs uptake by plants and report experiments that confirm this. Uptake experiments using hydroponics with a variety of species in the Poaceae, Asteraceae and Caryophyllid clade grown in a variety of N regimes with excess N and then acutely exposed to Cs showed that N nutrition could affect Cs uptake rates, total amounts of Cs taken up and root:shoot ratios of Cs. In general, the Caryophyllids tested produced significantly less shoot and root biomass but had higher Cs uptake rates when grown on NH4+ rather than NO3-, whilst species from the Poaceae and Asteraceae almost always produced similar shoot and root biomass and had similar Cs uptake on NH4+, NO3- or glycine as N sources. This is the first time that plants grown on an organic-N source have been demonstrated to take up Cs. Physiological experiments using N-starvation and the N-metabolism inhibitor methionine sulfoxamine (MSX) demonstrated that Cs transport into the root was inversely related to NH4+ transport, i.e. NH4+-grown plants had higher Cs uptake rates if there is no NH4+ present during uptake but lower Cs uptake rates if NH4+ is present. It is suggested that taking account of N ecophysiology might help refine predictions of soil-to-plant transfer of 137Cs and, in some instances, be useful for managing or manipulating it. It is noted that there is much recent research into N nutrition in plants that might be useful in achieving this. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2006
• Deposit Date: Apr 4, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 15, 2016
• Journal: Environmental and Experimental Botany
• Print ISSN: 0098-8472
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 58
• Issue: 1-3
• Pages: 114-122
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envexpbot.2005.07.001
• Keywords: 137Cs uptake, 137Cs translocation, N-nutrition, plant species, radioecology
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1048672
• Contract Date: Nov 15, 2016