Redox
driven mobilization and plant uptake of contaminants under
transiently saturated soil conditions need to be clarified to ensure
food and water quality across different irrigation systems. We postulate
that solid-phase iron reduction in anoxic microsites present in the
rhizosphere of unsaturated soil is a key driver for mobilization and
bioavailability of contaminants under nonflooded irrigation. To clarify
this, two major crops, corn and soybean differing in iron uptake strategies,
were grown in irrigated synthetic soil under semiarid conditions with
gravimetric moisture content ∼12.5 ± 2.4%. 2-line ferrihydrite,
which was coprecipitated with uranium and arsenic, served as the only
iron source in soil. Irrespective of crop type, reduced iron was detected
in pore water and postexperiment rhizosphere soil confirming ferrihydrite
reduction. These results support the presence of localized anoxic
microsites in the otherwise aerobic porous bulk soil causing reduction
of ferrihydrite and concomitant increase in plant uptake of comobilized
contaminants. Our findings indicate that reactive iron minerals undergo
reductive dissolution inside anoxic microsites of primarily unsaturated
soil, which may have implications on the mobility of trace element
contaminants such as arsenic and uranium in irrigated unsaturated
soils, accounting for 55% of the irrigated area in the US.