An overview of the direct and indirect effects of acid rain on plants: Relationships among acid rain, soil, microorganisms, and plants.

Yan Zhang, Jiahong Li, Junyan Tan, Wenbin Li, Bhupinder Pal Singh, Xunan Yang, Nanthi Bolan, Xin Chen, Song Xu, Yanping Bao, Daofei Lv, Anan Peng, Yanbo Zhou, Hailong Wang

Journal: The Science of the total environment 2023;873():162388

PMID: 36842576

Full Text on Elsevier Science View on PubMed

Abstract

Acid rain (AR) causes numerous environmental problems and complex negative effects on plants globally. Many studies have previously reported on direct effects of AR or its depositional substances on plant injury and performance. However, few studies have addressed the indirect effects of AR on plants as mediated by soil microorganisms and the abiotic environment of the soil rhizosphere. The indirect effects (e.g., AR → soil microorganisms→plants) need greater attention, because acidic deposition not only affects the distribution, composition, abundance, function, and activity of plant-associated microorganisms, but also influences the dynamics of some substances in the soil in a way that may be harmful to plants. Therefore, this review not only focused on the direct effects of AR on plant performance, growth, and biomass allocations from a whole-plant perspective, but also addressed the pathway of AR-soil chemical characteristics-plants, which explains how soil solute leaching and acidification by AR will reduce the availability of essential nutrients and increase the availability of heavy metals for plants, affecting carbon and nitrogen cycles. Mainly, we evaluated the AR-soil microorganisms-plants pathway by: 1) synthesizing the potential roles of soil microbes in alleviating soil acidic stress on plants and the adverse effects of AR on plant-associated soil microorganisms; 2) exploring how plant mycorrhizal types affect the detection of AR effect on plants. The meta-analysis showed that the effects of AR-induced pH on leaf chlorophyll content, plant height, and plant root biomass were dependent on plant mycorrhizal types. Some possible reasons for different synergy between mycorrhizal symbiotic types and plants were discussed. Future research relating to the effects of AR on plants should focus on the combined direct and indirect effects to evaluate how AR affects plant performance comprehensively.

Address: School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Foshan University, Foshan 528000, China.; School of Karst Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China.; Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment & Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China.; University of New England, School of Environmental and Rural Science, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia.; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Microbial State Key Laboratory of Applied Microbiology Southern China, Institute of Microbiology, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510070, China.; UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia; UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia.; School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Foshan University, Foshan 528000, China; Institute of Eco-environmental and Soil Sciences, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162388

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MeSH Terms: Soil, Acid Rain, Plants, Metals, Heavy, Mycorrhizae, Soil Microbiology