Community | July 30, 2011 | 20 comments

Crops absorb more toxic cadmium as carbon dioxide builds

source: http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/89/i31/8931scene3.html

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JanforGore
As human activity sends ever more carbon dioxide into the air, plants may grow faster and pull more nutrients from the soil. Now a study in food crops finds that as levels of CO2 increase, rice and wheat also take up more of the toxic metal cadmium (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/es2001584).

In a 29-month study, researchers led by Hongyan Guo, from Nanjing University, and Jianguo Zhu, of the Chinese Academy of Science's Institute of Soil Science in Nanjing, increased CO2 levels by 200 ppm in air over rice and wheat, to model the crops under atmospheric concentrations some scientists have predicted for the year 2050. The team spiked the soils with varying levels of cadmium, a toxic metal that is prevalent in China's soils, both from natural sources and industrial contamination.

After two growing seasons, wheat from the most contaminated soils, with 2 mg of cadmium per kilogram of soil, ended up with a cadmium concentration of 1.2 mg/kg, surpassing the 0.1 mg/kg wheat flour limit set by the European Food Safety Authority. Such high concentrations in food could lead to kidney problems in people who eat it, the researchers say. By contrast, wheat grown in the same soil but without added CO2 had a concentration of about 1 mg/kg, which the authors say is still elevated but significantly lower.

The study suggests that crop contamination under changing climate conditions "might be a much bigger issue than people realize in certain parts of the world," comments Ben Duval of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In a similar experimental setup in Florida, he and colleagues recently found that trees also take up greater amounts of some metals as carbon dioxide builds (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/es102250u).
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20 comments // Crops absorb more toxic cadmium as carbon dioxide builds

  • LivingPong
    • 0
      LivingPong  

    • With increased CO2 many plants start to increase their own natural toxicity. Plants are very capable at adapting to changes and warding off predators. If we look back in history at the toxicity levels of plants during high periods of CO2, reptiles evolved some incredible digestive systems to deal with high levels of toxicity. Unfortunately humans won't be producing formic acid in their gut any time soon. We'll be forced to become a little more creative with how we prepare what we eat. I don't want to be genetically spliced to an ant and neither does the ant I imagine.

    • 10 months ago
  • warman1138
    • +2
      warman1138  

    • Too bad we can't gather all of the polluting morons together and ship them to the moon, send them a postcard ''glad you're not here, enjoy your lifeless planet'' but they would probably screw up the moon too.....morons.

    • 10 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • coolplanet
    • 0
      coolplanet  

    • All I know from first-hand experience as an ogranic gardener is that weeds are doing fantastically well the warmer it gets.
      Geez it is becoming more difficult by the year to garden organically (which basically means pulling out weeds by hand).

    • 10 months ago
  • Conspiracy2Riot
    • 0
      Conspiracy2Riot  
    • coolplanet:

      i plant in beds and tires and everywhere i have open garden, i lay cardboard and cover it with straw. this has REALLY cut the weed problem down to an extremely manageable level. in my potato garden i just planted, waited for them to come up and then used aged straw and laid inbetween each plant and all the pathways really heavy. helps cut the amount of watering i do as well as the straw holds moisture in the ground as well.

      not sure if you're set up to operate this way but if you can do it anywhere, you'll be ahead of the game. i have approximately 4000 sq feet of garden planted so it's not like it's just a tiny patch. in the fall i rake the straw into the areas i've harvested and let it lay and decay and suppress weeds till i plant again in the spring. then i just rake it to the side and reuse it after I've amended the soil and replanted.

    • 10 months ago
  • EmperorThan
  • fernweher
  • JanforGore
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  

    • Cut down 90% on cereal consumption. Use a cup instead of a big bowl. Small amounts of food fill you up more when ya eat slower. .. especially the ones STUFFED WITH HEAVY CADMIUM.

    • 10 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • Simone_Castillo
  • oboith
    • 0
      oboith  

    • Demonstrating the obvious to the unwilling can be more dangerous than the physical toxicity...Kurt Vonnegutt Jr. is an excellent guide through the logical extension of Malthusian dynamics.

    • 10 months ago
  • squarethecircle
    • +3
      squarethecircle  

    • We think we understand so much with our science, but all we are is disconnected from reality. Reality will wake us up regardless of understanding or lack there of very soon.

    • 10 months ago
  • asocial
  • JanforGore
  • coolplanet
  • JanforGore
    • +4
      JanforGore  
    • coolplanet:

      Could be as well as other illnesses due to mercury overload from pollution of waterways and soils. Also, infertility. It most defiinitely is all connected, and that is the disconnection people need to see to underdstand the big picture.

    • 10 months ago
  • northernexpat
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • northernexpat:

      And now with much of the country into hydraulic fracking, we are getting more toxins making their way to our water supplies. But with everything else, it is only the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ that can be gained from doing anything that is considered, not the residual consequences.

    • 10 months ago
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
    • +3
      COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM  

    • Our very solar system goes to show how all life only exists in a very delicate balance. We can not afford to permit the criminally militant corporations and banks to destroy this delicate balance and our lives with their mantra of, " well, we're not sure about the meaning of the data". Science has shown that life has emerged and died out several times already on this planet, without the type of toxic contamination which we are permitting industry to spew into our environment. This is yet one more reason why we all must spill into the streets and protest the corporate and banking control of our government!

    • 10 months ago
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