Nanofertilizers consisting of metal oxide nanoparticles have become increasingly popular in agricultural practices. However, their impacts on the uptake and speciation of co-present arsenic (As) in rice tissues and the underlying mechanisms such as the possible role of dissolved ions from these nanoparticles remain unknown. A life cycle greenhouse study with rice in the presence of different types of metal oxide nanofertilizers or their salts was conducted. The results revealed distinctive impact of nanoparticles compared to their salt counterparts even for highly soluble metal oxide particles such as zinc oxide nanoparticles. Different types of nanoparticles also affected As accumulation and speciation in rice differently. The beneficial impact of some salts on grain yield and on lowering As accumulation in rice grains is more remarkable than their corresponding nanoparticles, indicating that caution should be taken in indiscriminate adoption of nanotechnology in agriculture. Importantly, our results also indicated that the impact of nanofertilizers and their salts on plant As uptake and speciation varied with plant growth stages, suggesting that the evaluation of the impact of nanofertilizers should be extended to the whole life cycle of plants. The results provide a new perspective in the application of nanotechnology in agriculture and detailed mechanisms for the impact of different forms of fertilizers will be discussed during the presentation.

Engineered nanoparticles exhibit distinctive impact on arsenic uptake and accumulation in rice

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