Trace minerals added to agricultural soils by animal effluents: an ecotoxicological issue?
Called trace minerals in animal nutrition or trace elements in soil science, their sustainable use from the feed to the food is a common interest of the two disciplines. This common interest is more particularly obvious about the potential ecotoxicological impact of trace elements given as feed supplements to animal and added to agricultural soils by animal effluent applications. Most trace elements are more concentrated in animal effluents than in soils in such a way that their repetitive applications to soils tended irreversibly to accumulate trace elements in soils. Global life cycle assessments (LCA) of this agricultural practice recently suggested a potentially high ecotoxicological impact on soils for some trace elements, copper and zinc more particularly. However, these conclusions are challenged by the theoretical and empirical knowledge concerning the biogeochemistry of trace elements in the agro-ecosystems. Accordingly, this presentation will aim at confronting the framework used in LCA for assessing soil ecotoxicity with the bioavailability theory and empirical evidences obtained in soil biogeochemistry. Although the LCA framework is roughly in line with the bioavailability theory, empirical evidences obtained in the past 15 years suggest that the protective effect of animal effluents on the ecotoxicity of trace elements accumulated in amended soils is not accounted for in LCA. This protective effect seems efficient to avoid ecotoxicological impact of trace elements over about a decade. However, trace elements accumulation in soils under an intensive rate of animal effluent applications could be at risk over a few decades. Accordingly, animal nutritionists, soil scientists, and plat physiologists would benefit to work all together to determine the set of levers able to maintain the concentration of trace elements in amended soils under ecotoxicological thresholds.
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | conference_item biblioteca |
| Language: | eng |
| Published: |
Animine
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| Online Access: | http://agritrop.cirad.fr/606161/ http://agritrop.cirad.fr/606161/2/Bravinetal_TE-Soil-Ecotox_AAcademy_230902_abstract.pdf |
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