IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2014) 5-1

Research article
erd

Effect of Groundwater Level on Cadmium Uptake andYield of Soybean from Cadmium Polluted Soils
MD. ZAHIDUL HAQUE*
United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences (UGAS), Iwate University, Iwate, Japan
Email: mzhaque81@gmail.com

CHOICHI SASAKI
Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science, Hirosaki University, Hirosaki, JapanNOBUHIKO MATSUYAMA
Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science, Hirosaki University, Aomori, Japan

TAKEYUKI ANNAKA
Faculty of Agriculture, Yamagata University, Yamagata, Japan

KIICHI SASAKI
United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences (UGAS), Iwate University, Iwate, Japan
Received 30 October 2013

Accepted 1 March 2014(*Corresponding author)

Abstract Human uptake of Cadmium (Cd), a toxic heavy metal that can cause kidneydamage and other physiological disorder, takes place mainly through food. In someregions of Japan, the agricultural land area was polluted with heavy metals especially Cd.
Management of groundwater level can be effective method for minimization of Cd uptake
in plant at large scale agricultural field. In this greenhouse experiment, we investigated
two constant groundwater levels; 10cm groundwater level model (M-10) and 40cm
groundwater level model (M-40) on Cd uptake in Soybean plant in Cd polluted soils (3.39
mgkg-1). The redox potential of soil layer was measured from seed sowing to harvesting.
Thickness of gravel layer, non-polluted soil and polluted soil was 14, 15 and 25cm
respectively. The soil layer (10-40 cm) of M-10 was always measured in reduction
condition and 0-40cm layer of M-40 was always in oxidation condition. Cd concentrationof Soybean seed was significantly lower in M-10 (0.92 ± 0.1 mgkg-1) than that of M-40
(1.31 ± 0.2 mgkg-1). Cd concentration of stem was also found significantly lower in M-10
(0.82 ± 0.1 mgkg-1) than that of M-40 (2.34 ± 0.2 mgkg-1). In the other hand, main stemheight of soybean plant of M-40 (111.6 ± 5.1 cm) was significantly higher than that of M10 (100.5 ± 3.6 cm). In vegetative stage (first 50 days) the SPAD-value was observed
higher in M-40 (about 46.5) and lower in M-10 (about 31.3). Branch number, 100 seed
weight and seed yield were also found significantly higher in M-40 than those of M-10.
The result revealed that, reduction condition was effective for minimization of Cd uptake
in Soybean plant whereas, oxidation condition was favorable for seed yield.
Keywords cadmium uptake, groundwater level, soybean yield

INTRODUCTION
Many heavy metals exist in minute amounts in natural agricultural soil. However, when theamounts exceed a certain level due to pollutants brought from outside, soil contamination occurs
and agricultural products become contaminated. It poses a great threat to the environment andhuman health worldwide due to the persistent nature and toxicity and their accumulation in thefood chain (Bahadir et al., 2007). Cadmium (Cd) is one of the most harmful heavy metals. Cd
occurs naturally in the environment in its inorganic form as a result of volcanic emissions andweathering of rocks. In addition, mining, modern industrialization, use of fertilizers and CdⒸ ISERD

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containing sludge has led to an increase in levels of Cd in soil, water and living organisms.
Several possible methods of minimizing absorption of Cd by agricultural crops exist mainly,
1) soil dressing, 2) water management (paddy field), 3) chemical cleaning of soil, 4)phytoremediation and 5) use of different varieties and rootstock. But most of these methods arevery costly and time consuming for effective minimization. A further possible mechanism of
reducing Cd uptake may be via groundwater level management. In this process, oxidationreduction condition of root zone is controlled by groundwater level management. In oxidation
conditions, Cd converts to a soluble form that plants can uptake easily. On the other hand, in
reduction condition it is not in available form for the plant. Furthermore, the environmental andeconomic benefits of groundwater level management through reduced pollution and increased
yields have been documented (Kalita and Kanwar, 1993).
Soybean is one of the world’s major and fastest expanding crops in terms of both calorie andprotein intake. Soybean is an important traditional food, and sauce and paste made from it are
intrinsic to the Japanese gastronomic culture. A large-scale domestic agricultural products survey
in Japan showed that the Cd concentration in one-sixth of the total soybean seed exceeded 0.2
mgkg-1, the international allowable limit proposed by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (MAFF,
2002). It is important to increase the yield as well as minimization of Cd from polluted soils. The
objective of the study is to find out the relation between groundwater level on cadmium uptake andsoybean yield. This will help to minimize uptake of heavy metals especially Cd in different grain
crops.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Soil Properties
In this study, we used polluted soil from Eastern Japan (we kept the place secret) and non-polluted
soil from Kanagi, Aomori prefecture. The physio-chemical properties of the soil were measured by
the standard methods of analysis (Table 1).
Table 1 Soil physical and chemical properties (Paul et al., 2011)
SampleDensity(g/cm³)Soil
textureMgO*

Polluted
soil
Non
Polluted
soil
Gravel

Na2O
*

CaO
*

K2O Total Fe
*

*

Cd

T-N
(%)

T-P
(%)

OM
(%)

*

2.453

L

496

114

2909

311

2820

3.39

0.40

0.15

4.80

2.592

SCL

918

84

1530

159

5683

0.14

0.44

0.60

6.00

147

18

539

58

600

0.13

0.00

0.35

0.05

2.680

Note: Soil texture is based on the International Soil Society classification. L: Loamy; SCL: Silty Clay loam.* mgkg -1 drysoil. Gravel diameter size 2-4mm

Experimental Design
The experiment was conducted in green house of Hirosaki University at Aomori prefecture. Twoplastic containers were used for two groundwater level treatment model; 10 cm (M-10) and 40 cm(M-40). Both containers were filled with gravel (small stone; 14 cm), non-polluted soil (15 cm) andpolluted soil (25 cm) shown in Fig. 1. After filling soil, Eh sensor and temperature sensor was set
up for every soil layer of the box.
Cultivation ProcedureⒸ ISERD108

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Before seeding the groundwater level was set up as 10cm for both treatments for 12 hours to moist
the soil. After 12 hours of seeding the groundwater level was set up as per treatment. Groundwaterlevel was maintained by Mariotte bottle arrangement which supplied water through the bottom of
the plastic box. Fertilizer (N,P,K) was applied as per recommended rate for Rhyho variety. The
seeds of soybean plants (Glycine max (L.) Merr.cv. Rhyho) were sown in four points of every box
at 4 seeds/point at 1st June 2012 about 2-3 cm depth of soil. After emergence, (15 days aftersowing) soybean plants were thinned to 2/point as well as 8/box. In every 4 days, 2000 ml water
was supplied in every box that is equal to rainfall of 4 days in this location. The plants wereperiodically sprayed with insecticide.
Measurement Procedure
Oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) of each soil layer was measured by electrometrically using
ORP meter (Central Science Co., Ltd., model UC-203) from vegetative to harvesting period. Leaf
color measured using chlorophyll meter (Minolta Co. Model SPAD-502) from first trifoliate leaf
stage. The latest fully developed trifoliate leaf was used for leaf color measurement. Cd content ofseed, stem and root was measured after harvesting and drying and then extracted by nitric acid andsulfuric acid and the analyzed by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (Model Z-2000, Hitachi
Corporation) as described by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan(MAFF ,1979).

Fig. 1 Layout of plastic container used in the experiment
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Redox Potential of Soil Layers (Eh)Oxidation-Reduction potential (ORP) condition is known as a redox potential (Eh). The Eh value insoil more than 300 mV is an indicator of oxidation condition and lower than 300 mV indicatesⒸ ISERD

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reduction condition (Iimura, 1981). Eh value varied in two boxes for two different groundwaterlevel treatment model. Eh value is less than 300 mV in below 10cm (from soil surface) in M-10 for
saturated condition by groundwater level (Fig. 2). In case of M-40, soil layer (0-40 cm) was
remaining in oxidation condition at about 700 mV Eh value (Fig. 3).
So it means reduction condition remained through crop life time of M-10 and oxidation
condition occurred in M-40. The proportion of soluble cadmium decreases abruptly with thedecrease of soil redox potential (Iimura, 1981). So, Cd dissolute decreased comparatively in M-10
than M-40.
900

Eh1〜Eh5 ( depth from soil surface) 	
 Eh (mV)	
 

700
500

Oxidation state	
 300

Eh1(5cm)Eh2(10cm)

Reduction state	 Eh3(20cm)

100

Eh4(30cm)-100

Eh5(40cm)

-300
0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Measurement day	 Fig. 2 Eh value of soil layer of 10 cm groundwater level model
Eh1〜Eh5 ( depth from soil surface) 	
 900

Eh (mV)

700500

Eh1(5cm)Oxidation state	
 300

Eh2(10cm)
Reduction state	
 100

Eh3(20cm)-100

Eh4(30cm)
Eh5(40cm)

-300
0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Measurement day

Fig. 3 Eh value of soil layer of 40 cm groundwater level model
Cadmium Concentration in Soybean Plants
Cadmium concentration of different parts of soybean plant was found higher in M-40 than M-10.
Accumulation of Cd uptake in seed by soybean plants was significantly higher in case of M-40
(1.31 ± 0.2 mgkg-1) than M-10 (0.92 ± 0.1 mgkg-1) at p > 0.001 (Fig. 4).
The reason was that, reduction condition occurred in M-10 for high groundwater level and M40 caused oxidation condition for lower groundwater level. Absorption and accumulation of CdⒸ ISERD

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was significantly reduced with diminishing Eh in reductive conditions formed by flooding rice
fields (Lu et al., 1992). Previous researchers showed that in soil reduction condition, the presenceof sulphate ion can be converted to sulfide ion which reacts with Cd and produce relatively
insoluble Cadmium sulfide (Ono et al., 2003). This mechanism supported to the M-10 and that is
why the Cd uptake by soybean plants was low. Cd uptake of soybean stem was also significantly
higher in M-40 than M-10 (Fig. 5). The average value of stem Cd uptake of M-40 and M-10 were(2.34 ± 0.2 mgkg-1) and (0.82 ± 0.1 mgkg-1) respectively. It showed that Cd concentration was
found 3 times higher in M-40 than M-10. This result revealed that redox condition of soil
influences the uptake of Cd and mobilization in soybean plants. Accumulation of Cd in roots ofsoybean plants in M-10 (5.92 ± 0.5 mgkg-1) had no significant difference (p = 0.875) with that of
M-40 (6.08 ± 2.2 mgkg-1) shown in Fig. 6. The Cd Concentration of soybean root was found higher
than that of stem and seed.
These happened due to the apparent free space (it represents the intercellular space freely
accessible to ions) of plant tissues were much greater in root tissue than other parts. In M-10, theCd concentration of root found about 7 times higher than that of stem and seed; and in M-40, theCd concentration of root found about 3 times higher than that of stem and seed. Accumulation of
Cd in root was the highest of the total Cd in the plant (Jarvis and Jones, 1976; Cui et al., 2008)
which is similar to this study.

Fig. 4 Cadmium concentration Fig. 5 Cadmium concentration Fig.6 Cadmium concentrationin seedin stemin root
Soybean Yield Components
The average main stem height in M-40 (111.6 ± 5.1 cm) was significantly higher than that of M-10
(100.5 ± 3.6 cm) shown in Table 2. This result might be occurred due to high groundwater level
effect in M-10. In M-10, first 30 days vegetative growth was affected due to the excessive moisturein the soil which was clearly visible in our experiment. Vegetative growth was inhibited following
shorter stem (Garside et al., 1992a) by the effect of excess moisture which is supported to thepresent study. Main stem length was found higher with lower water table treatment (Shimada et al.,1995) which is also similar to M-40.
There was a significant difference happened in case of soybean yield due to groundwater level
difference in this experiment. The average good seed weight per plant was 68.1 ± 14.6 g in M-40
and 35.1 ± 13.8 g, in M-10 (Table 2). Effects of groundwater level on soybean yield have been
observed by many researchers. The optimum groundwater table depth for getting highest yield little
differs from researcher to researcher; that is 20cm (Abe et al., 1981), 40cm (Ishibashi et al., 1982),
30cm to 50cm (Ueno, 1979) and 50cm (Shibata and Endo, 1976). In our experiment, we foundhigher yield in M-40 than M-10. Another researches showed that, soybean gave high yield when
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grown at around 10cm depth groundwater table in the saturated soil culture at the semi-arid tropicalregion in Australia (Garside et al., 1992b). In Japan most of the high yielded records were obtainedon a drained paddy field where the water table maintained at around 50cm from the soil surface.
100 seed weight and branch number plant-1 were found significantly higher for M-40 than M10. In M-40, 100 seed weight was found 39.2 ± 2.8 g and in M-10 was 30.9 ±1.7 g (Table 2). It
showed that Soybean seed of M-40 was good quality. In M-40 showed higher (7.9 ± 0.9) branchnumber than M-10 (5.9 ± 1.6) (Table 2). Previous researches found 100 seed yield decreases forexcess moisture in the soil at the ripening stage (Sugimoto et al., 2000). The average stem diameterand seed/pod were not significantly differing in M-40 to M-10.
Table 2 Soybean yield components of two different groundwater levels
Ground-water
level
10 cm
40 cm

Yield components
Stem height Stem diameter
Branch No.*
Seed/pod(cm)*(mm)
100.5 ± 3.6
7.3 ± 1.9
5.9 ± 1.6
1.94 ± 0.08
111.6 ± 5.1
9.0 ± 0.9
7.9 ± 0.9
1.92 ± 0.05

100 seed wt.1 Good seed wt.1
(g)*
(g)*
30.9 ± 1.7
35.1 ± 13.8
39.2 ± 2.8
68.1 ± 14.6

Note: * means significant according to ANOVA at 0.05 level. 1- Seed weight at 15% moisture. In all cases (n=8)

Leaf Color (SPAD-Value)
The chlorophyll meter provides a simple, quick, portable and non-destructive method for
estimating leaf chlorophyll content. In SPAD-value graph (Fig. 7) we can clearly see the effect ofgroundwater level on leaf chlorophyll content. In M-10 model, vegetative state (up to 50 days aftersowing) the leaf chlorophyll content was lower (about 31.3) whereas M-40 model was higher(about 46.5). It happened in M-10 model because of high groundwater level. But, after 50 days it
recovers by its adaptation quality. We know that, soybean plant has high range of adaptation
quality in high range of groundwater level. In previous study, (Garside et al., 1992a) reported that
temporary chlorosis occurred when saturated-soil-water culture was given to soybean plants andthat caused a reduction of leaf nitrogen content (Sugimoto et al., 1988). So it is clear thatgroundwater level has an effect on leaf chlorophyll content. Chlorophyll contents decrease as well
as decrease seed yield in lower water table treatment (Shimada et al., 1995) that is similar to thisexperiment.

Fig. 7 SPAD value of soybean plant grown in two different groundwater level
CONCLUSION
The accumulation of Cd in soybean plants was significantly affected by groundwater level.
Groundwater level controls the oxidation-reduction status of soil, consequently uptake of heavyⒸ ISERD112

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metal by soybean plants. In oxidation condition of soil, plants uptake more Cd than reduction
condition of soil due to increase of soluble Cd. This result suggested that low groundwater level aswell as oxidation condition promotes Cd uptake in soybean plant and high groundwater level aswell as reduction condition inhibits the Cd uptake. This could be an effective technique forminimization of Cd and other heavy metal uptake from polluted soils and it can be improve themanagement of polluted soil in many countries. We need more research about various ranges ofgroundwater level and various stage of soybean to develop agronomic management of soybean
cultivation in polluted soil.
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