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Iron Plaque: A Shield against Soil Contamination and Key to Sustainable Agriculture
Summary
This review explains how iron plaque, a natural coating that forms on the roots of wetland plants, can block heavy metals from moving from contaminated soil into crops. Iron plaque acts like a filter, binding toxic metals and preventing them from entering the food chain. While focused on heavy metals rather than microplastics directly, this research is relevant because microplastics often carry heavy metals into soil, and iron plaque could offer a natural way to reduce contamination in food crops.
Soils play a dominant role in supporting the survival and growth of crops and they are also extremely important for human health and food safety. At present, the contamination of soil by heavy metals remains a globally concerning environmental issue that needs to be resolved. In the environment, iron plaque, naturally occurring on the root surface of wetland plants, is found to be equipped with an excellent ability at blocking the migration of heavy metals from soils to plants, which can be further developed as an environmentally friendly strategy for soil remediation to ensure food security. Because of its large surface-to-volume porous structure, iron plaque exhibits high binding affinity to heavy metals. Moreover, iron plaque can be seen as a reservoir to store nutrients to support the growth of plants. In this review, the formation process of iron plaque, the ecological role that iron plaque plays in the environment and the interaction between iron plaque, plants and microbes, are summarized.
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