Abstract
The objective of this greenhouse study was to evaluate Brazilian single superphosphates (SSP) in terms of their cadmium (Cd) contents and Cd bioavailability to corn plants grown in a Typic Hapludox soil. Five SSP obtained from Brazilian raw materials were studied, either in the original form or leached in order to remove the water-soluble fraction of the fertilizer. Three methods of phosphorus (P) application were used: mixing the SSP with 100, 10, and 1% of the volume of soil in the pots. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized block design with four replications in a 5×2×3 factorial arrangement. Results demonstrated that application of high rates of bioavailable P tends to reduce plant Cd concentration mainly due to the dilution effect and that mixing the SSP with 100% of the soil volume resulted in higher Cd uptake by the plants as compared with the localized applications. The SSP sources resulted in similar plant Cd uptake. A significant difference was found only between the Catalão 1-SSP and the Tapira-SSP, which resulted in the highest and lowest Cd uptakes, respectively.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors express their gratitude to Mr. S.H. Chien and Mr. G. Carmona, from the International Fertilizer Development Center – IFDC, for reviewing the manuscript, which certainly improved the quality of this paper. The first and third authors also express their gratitude to CNPq for their scholarship in research.