Does wood ash application increase heavy metal accumulation in forest berries and mushrooms?

Ground vegetation has a major role in element dynamics in an ash-fertilized cut-away peatland

“…This result supports the previous findings on post ash-fertilization Cd levels in forest berries (Silfverberg and Issakainen, 1991;Levula et al, 2000;Lodenius, 2002;Moilanen et al, 2006) and silver birch seedlings (Hytönen, 1998;Mandre et al, 2010). Even if the post ash-fertilization Cd levels were low, birch seedlings had higher Cd content than other studied vascular plants reflecting the natural variation among the plant species.…”

“…In contrast to wood-ash, peat-ash contains less harmful heavy metals, but it is poorer in mineral nutrients, especially potassium (K) (Hytönen, 2003;Nieminen et al, 2005;Mandre et al, 2010). Although studies have shown that pure wood-ash can be used as a fertilizer on peatland forests without any significant negative impact on the environment (Lodenius, 2003;Moilanen et al, 2006;Saarsalmi et al, 2006;Solla-Gullon et al, 2006;Omil et al, 2007), the amount of recycled wood-ash is still insignificant.…”

Runoff characteristics in forest plots before and after wood ash fertilization

“…However Williams et al (1996) studying forest soils in the eastern coast of USA conclude that doses up to 44 Mg ha -1 did not increase concentrations of hazardous elements in infiltrated water, while low concentrations of heavy metals were retained in the soil. In another study, Moilanen et al (2006) concluded that the heavy metals brought into the ecosystem by ash application are unlikely to be accumulated in any considerable amounts in forest berries and mushrooms.…”

Artificial weathering reveals reduced elemental leachability from hardened biomass ash.

“…Cadmium was the only metal showing increased accumulation in one species o f mushroom, Russula emetic (Moilanen et al, 2006).…”

“…One study has shown that plant uptake o f non-nutrient metals is minimal in forest berries, mushrooms, and plants (Moilanen et al, 2006). M any species studied by Moilanen et al (2006) saw decreased metal accumulation over four years compared to the control data.…”