Aluminium sulphate

Toxicity to terrestrial plants

Administrative data

Endpoint:

toxicity to terrestrial plants: short-term

Type of information:

experimental study

Adequacy of study:

disregarded due to major methodological deficiencies

Reliability:

3 (not reliable)

Rationale for reliability incl. deficiencies:

other: see 'Remark'

Remarks:

Does not follow standard guidelines forplant testing (hydroponic solution) and pH outside of acceptable range. The objective of the authors was to discriminate between white oat genotype Al tolerance rather than to determine an effect concentration per se.

Data source

Reference

Reference Type:

publication

Title:

Related characteristics and multivariate analyses in the evaluation of white oat aluminium tolerance

Author:

Crestani M, Gonzalez da Silva JA, Bervald CMP, da Maia LC, de Oliveira AC, de Carvalho FIF

Year:

2011

Bibliographic source:

Communications in soil science and Plant Analysis, 42 pp 247-262

Materials and methods

Principles of method if other than guideline:

white oat plantlets exposed to a series of aluminium salt concentrations in hydroponic medium. Varoious parameters such as root and shoot length were compared to the control to determine effect concentrations

Test material

Test material information

Test material form:

other: Solution

Sampling and analysis

Analytical monitoring:

no

Details on sampling:

No data

Test substrate

Vehicle:

no

Details on preparation and application of test substrate:

No substrate used

Study design

Test type:

other: hydroponic toxicity test

Study type:

laboratory study

Substrate type:

other: hydroponic solution

Total exposure duration:

48 h

Post exposure observation period:

72 h although later on 7 days is mentioned as total experimental length

Test conditions

Test temperature:

26 ± 1°C

pH:

4.0 ± 0.3 but not clear if this was the nutrient solution pH used in post exposure period or also the Al solution pH

Moisture:

100% (hydroponic solution)

Details on test conditions:

Constantly maintained under a light intensity of 1700 lux over the duration of the experiment

Nominal and measured concentrations:

0, 8, 16, 32 mg/L

Applicant's summary and conclusion

Executive summary:

White oat plantlet genotypes were exposed for a period of 48 h hydroponically to aluminium concentrations as aluminium sulphate octadecahydrate and aluminium chloride hexahydrate before being transferred to hydroponic medium without aluminium for a further 5 days. At the end of this time the following morphological characteristics were measured: root length, Shoot length, first leaf length, second leaf length, coleoptyle length and first leaf insertion as well as determinations of root and shoot dry weight. Effects were found with correlations between root dry weight and root length for aluminium sulphate and for root dry weight and root length as well as root length and shoot dry weight for aluminium chloride. However, as the aim of the work was to determine relationships betxween morphological parameters rather than an EC50 or threshold toxic concentrations, it is not possible to use these results to determine a toxic concentration. Moreover, the relationship between hydroponic solution containing aluminium and soil is not clear and therefore this publication cannot be used for risk assessment.