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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Two-Dimensional Visualization and Quantification of Labile, Inorganic Plant Nutrients and Contaminants in Soil
Published on: September 1, 2020
Is an adjusted rhizosphere-based method valid for field assessment of metal phytoavailability? Application to
Jing Fang1, Bei Wen, Xiao-quan Shan
1State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing 100085, China.
Abstract:
Previously recommended rhizosphere-based method (RHIZO) applied to moist rhizosphere soils was integrated with moist bulk soils, and termed adjusted-RHIZO method (A-RHIZO). The A-RHIZO and RHIZO methods were systematically compared with EDTA, DTPA, CaCl2 and the first step of the Community Bureau of Reference (BCR1) methods for assessing metal phytoavailability under field conditions. Results suggested that moist bulk soils are equally suited or even better than rhizosphere soils to estimate metal phytoavailability. The A-RHIZO method was preferred to other methods for predicting the phytoavailability of Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb and Mn to wheat roots with correlation coefficients of 0.730 (P<0.001), 0.854 (P<0.001), 0.887 (P<0.001), 0.739 (P<0.001), 0.725 (P<0.001) and 0.469 (P<0.05), respectively. When including soil properties, other extraction methods were also able to predict phytoavailability reasonably well for some metals. Soil pH, organic matter and Fe-Mn oxide contents, and cation-exchange capacity mostly influenced the extraction and phytoavailability of metals.

