Eduardo Moreno-Jiménez

Autonomous University of Madrid | UAM · Department of Agricultural Chemistry

Mining can greatly affect water quality in nearby areas, especially when mines are abandoned and lead to contamination from tailings and drainage. This study examines the impact of the abandoned Zeïda lead mine on water sources in the Upper Moulouya region of northwestern Morocco. We aimed to evaluate water quality, understand geochemical processes...

The utilization of biochar as a relatively efficient sorbent or stationary phase for the separation and preconcentration of a wide range of analytes represents an innovative approach in current sample pretreatment methods. Appropriate pre- and post-pyrolysis modification of the input precursor and pyrolysis product, respectively, allows targeted de...

This report investigates the intricate interplay between the drivers of changes in soil health, along with the pressures and impacts on soil in the 32 European Environment Agency (EEA) member countries, as well as six cooperating countries from the West Balkans, Ukraine, and the UK. It sheds light on the multifaceted challenges facing soil conserva...

Earth harbours an extraordinary plant phenotypic diversity¹ that is at risk from ongoing global changes2,3. However, it remains unknown how increasing aridity and livestock grazing pressure—two major drivers of global change4–6—shape the trait covariation that underlies plant phenotypic diversity1,7. Here we assessed how covariation among 20 chemic...

Mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) constitutes a major fraction of global soil carbon and is assumed less sensitive to climate than particulate organic carbon (POC) due to protection by minerals. Despite its importance for long-term carbon storage, the response of MAOC to changing climates in drylands, which cover more than 40% of the global...

Cereals zinc (Zn) biofortification represents an effective strategy for alleviating human Zn malnutrition. However, understanding how to enhance Zn uptake in shoots by optimizing the soil–root interface, particularly considering Zn availability, microbiome interactions, and plant physiology, remains poorly understood, especially in high-pH soils. I...

The relationship between metallic micronutrients and soil microorganisms, and thereby soil functioning, has been little explored. Here, we investigate the relationship between metallic micronutrients (Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Mo and Ni) and the abundance, diversity and function of soil microbiomes. In a survey across 180 sites in China, covering a wide rang...

Optimizing agroecosystems and crops for micronutrient uptake while reducing issues with inorganic contaminants (metal(loid)s) is a challenging task. One promising approach is to use arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and investigate the physiological, molecular and epigenetic changes that occur in their presence and that lead to changes in plant me...

Previous studies have shown that arsenic and cadmium can accumulate in rice grain to levels that cause health concerns. Furthermore, geographical survey has shown that there is considerable variation (~ 100-fold) in accumulation of these carcinogens in rice grain. This variance must be due to heterogeneity in soil biogeochemistry and contrasting ri...

Assessment of water quality and potential health risks through probabilistic approaches is fundamental in determining the uses of water and prevent health problems. This study aimed to investigate the presence of toxic/non-toxic elements, evaluate water quality and assess health risks in a arid region in Iran. Eighteen elements were detected in the...

While urban-grown vegetables could help combat future food insecurity, the elevated levels of toxic metals in urban soils need to be met with measures that minimise transfer to crops. The study firstly examines soil/dust particle inclusion in leafy vegetables and its contribution to vegetable metals (As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Sb, and Zn), usi...

Soil contamination is one of the main threats to ecosystem health and sustainability. Yet little is known about the extent to which soil contaminants differ between urban greenspaces and natural ecosystems. Here we show that urban greenspaces and adjacent natural areas (i.e., natural/semi-natural ecosystems) shared similar levels of multiple soil c...

Increasing the number of environmental stressors could decrease ecosystem functioning in soils. Yet this relationship has not been globally assessed outside laboratory experiments. Here, using two independent global standardized field surveys, and a range of natural and human factors, we test the relationship between the number of environmental str...

The Zeïda mining center, closed in the mid-1980s, was once intensively exploited for lead concentrates. Throughout its activity, more than 12 Mt of tailings were generated and, to this day, they are still abandoned in the open air, exposed to weathering conditions without any rehabilitation. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the envir...

Grazing represents the most extensive use of land worldwide. Yet its impacts on ecosystem services remain uncertain because pervasive interactions between grazing pressure, climate, soil properties, and biodiversity may occur but have never been addressed simultaneously. Using a standardized survey at 98 sites across six continents, we show that in...

Grazing represents the most extensive use of land worldwide. Yet its impacts on ecosystem services remain uncertain because pervasive interactions between grazing pressure, climate, soil properties, and biodiversity may occur but have never been addressed simultaneously. Using a standardized survey at 98 sites across six continents, we show that in...

Soil micronutrients are capital for the delivery of ecosystem functioning and food provision worldwide. Yet, despite their importance, the global biogeography and ecological drivers of soil micronutrients remain virtually unknown, limiting our capacity to anticipate abrupt unexpected changes in soil micronutrients in the face of climate change. Her...

Despite the centrality of staple grains for human well-being, both as a source of nutrients and of toxic ions, there is little understanding of where and how elements vary, and if there are particular elements that correlate. Here, for shop bought polished (white) rice, we comprehensively characterized trace (arsenic species, cadmium, copper, iron,...

The concentration level of a certain metal in soil is often the guideline for evaluating its contamination level. In such a process, ecological standards are the guidelines for assessing ecological risks. In the presence of certain conditions, the risk of contamination can expand beyond the concerned area creating a threat that is based on mobility...

Unlabelled: Accumulating evidence suggests that warming associated with climate change is decreasing the total amount of soil organic carbon (SOC) in drylands, although scientific research has not given enough emphasis to particulate (POC) and mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) pools. Biocrusts are a major biotic feature of drylands and have...

The release of arsenic (As) adsorbed onto iron oxide (Fe-oxide) surfaces is affected by dissolved organic matter (DOM), phosphate (hereafter referred to as PO4), and silicic acid (H4SiO4). Further, the reductive dissolution of As from Fe-oxide phases is also affected in reduced soils and sediments. Thus, the aim of this study was to understand the...

The release of arsenic (As) adsorbed onto iron oxide (Fe-oxide) surfaces is affected by dissolved organic matter (DOM), phosphate (hereafter referred to as PO4), and silicic acid (H4SiO4). Further, the reductive dissolution of As from Fe-oxide phases is also affected in reduced soils and sediments. Thus, the aim of this study was to understand the...

Technology-critical elements (TCEs) include most rare earth elements (REEs), the platinum group elements (PGEs), and Ga, Ge, In, Nb, Ta, Te, and Tl. Despite increasing recognition of their prolific release into the environment, their soil to plant transfer remains largely unknown. This paper provides an approximation of the potential for plant upta...

Despite the centrality of staple grains for human well-being, both as a source of nutrients and of toxic ions, there is little understanding of where and how elements vary, and if there are particular elements that correlate. Here, for shop bought polished (white) rice we comprehensively characterize trace (arsenic species, cadmium, copper, iron, m...

Despite the centrality of staple grains for human well-being, both as a source of nutrients and of toxic ions, there is little understanding of where and how elements vary, and if there are particular elements that correlate. Here, for shop bought polished (white) rice we comprehensively characterize trace (arsenic species, cadmium, copper, iron, m...

High concentrations of arsenic (As) in groundwater threaten the environment and public health. Geogenically, groundwater As contamination predominantly occurs via its mobilization from underground As-rich sediments. In an aquatic ecosystem, As is typically driven by several underlying processes, such as redox transitions, microbially driven reducti...

Introduction Soil microplastic (MP) pollution has emerged as a main factor of global change, but its effects on soil nutrient availability and uptake by crops (macro and micronutrients) are largely unknown. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are regulators of nutrient availability and uptake and can interact with soil MP. Materials and Methods Bui...

Biochar is a promising immobilizing agent of trace elements (TEs) in contaminated soils. However, several contradictory results have been reported regarding the potential of biochar to immobilize arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), and nickel (Ni) in contaminated soils. We conducted a meta-analysis on the published papers since 2006 until 2019 to examine...

Dryland soils provide different societal and environmental services, such as food supply and biodiversity support. In Europe, most of dryland areas are devoted to agriculture. In the next decades, both European and worldwide drylands are expected to suffer with intensity the foreseen climate change-derived rise in aridity. Many studies have focusse...

BACKGROUND Nowadays a significant amount of land contaminated with toxic elements is being used for agriculture, posing a serious risk of crop contamination and toxicity. Several methodologies are being used to remediate soil contamination, including the use of amendments such as biochar. This work evaluated the effects of biochar combined with dif...

Arsenic in rice grain is dominated by two species: the carcinogen inorganic arsenic (the sum of arsenate and arsenite) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA). Rice is the dominant source of inorganic arsenic into the human diet. As such, there is a need to identify sources of low-inorganic arsenic rice globally. Here we surveyed polished (white) rice acros...

The last column in Table 1, “As air conc.” is not used in the text and was included by mistake.

One of cadmium’s major exposure routes to humans is through rice consumption. The concentrations of cadmium in the global polished (white), market rice supply-chain were assessed in 2270 samples, purchased from retailers across 32 countries, encompassing 6 continents. It was found on a global basis that East Africa had the lowest cadmium with a med...

The biogeochemical cycling of multiple soil elements is fundamental for life on Earth. Here, we conducted a global field survey across 16 chronosequences from contrasting biomes with soil ages ranging from centuries to millions of years. For this, we collected and analysed 435 topsoil samples (0–10 cm) from 87 locations. We showed that high levels...

The availability of metallic nutrients in dryland soils, many of which are essential for the metabolism of soil organisms and vascular plants, may be altered due to climate change-driven increases in aridity. Biocrusts, soil surface communities dominated by lichens, bryophytes and cyanobacteria, are ecosystem engineers known to exert critical funct...

Biochar application is now considered to be one of the most promising agricultural practices to mitigate climate change. However, to fully assess the benefits of biochar, we still need to better understand its effects on soil properties, and particularly on native soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics. In this work, we investigated soil respiration an...

Urban soils are at the interface between land and people and provide a wide variety of important ecosystem services to highly populous areas. The aims of this soil survey were (1) to measure the bulk density, carbon (C) storage and pH of surface soils (0–15 cm depth) from public spaces (parks and road verges) in the city of Liverpool, UK, and (2) t...

Stabilized cementitious aggregates (AG) were produced from wood ashes with ∼10000 mg kg⁻¹ As, Cr and Cu, then amended to two agricultural pasture soils. Metal(loid) leaching (column tests), mobility (pore water extracts) and uptake to ryegrass was determined, comparing raw ashes with aggregates. Risk modeling was applied to selected data to inform...

The application of pyrogenic materials in immobilization processes of metalloids represents a burning issue in environmental and waste applications and management. The main objective of this study was to characterize the effect of biomass pretreatment by Cu, Fe and Mg blending and pyrolysis temperature on As sorption efficiency as a model of anioni...

Trace element behavior in flooded/lowland rice soils, is controlled by root-zone iron oxidation. Insoluble iron species bind/capture toxic elements, i.e. arsenic. However, it was recently observed that within this territory of arsenic immobilization lies a zone of prolific iron release, accompanied by a significant flux of arsenic in close proximit...

Biochar, a carbonaceous material derived from biomass by pyrolysis, stands out as environmentally friendly and low-cost carbon material with specific features that could be exploited for various applications, which range from the safe and long-term storage of carbon in the environment, to soil improvement and energy storage. It can be envisaged tha...

An outdoor macrocosm experiment using Fe-based and organic amendments over 2 years was set up to evaluate the effectiveness of aided-phytostabilisation. For that, a soil contaminated with As- and Cu-rich waste material (∼13000 mg As kg-1 and ∼500 mg Cu kg-1) was treated with combinations of iron sulphate (Fe) with lime, paper mill sludge (PS), holm...

Current intensive agricultural practices, although highly successful in terms of production, have been found to be environmentally unsustainable. One of the crucial approaches to increase agricultural sustainability is the recycling of organic wastes, since these materials often contain many beneficial nutrients for soil and agriculture. Recently,...

Soil pollution with trace elements is a concerning issue worldwide. Monitoring of soil pollution and remediation protocols need still from valid complementary analytical approaches able to detect changes in speciation and lability of metals in soils (e.g. stabilization or mobility). In this work, we compare three different analytical approaches to...

Drylands cover more than 40% of the terrestrial surface, and their global extent and socioecological importance will increase in the future due to the forecasted increases in aridity driven by climate change. Despite the essential role of metallic micronutrients in life chemistry and ecosystem functioning, it is virtually unknown how their bioavail...

The utilization of carbon-rich pyrolysis materials in the separation processes of metalloids plays a crucial role in analytes pre-concentration techniques and opens a burning issue in new sorbents development. This study characterized the effect of physical and chemical activation with subsequent iron impregnation of grape seed-derived biochar on s...

Metal-blending of biomass prior to pyrolysis is investigated in this work as a tool to modify physico-chemical biochar properties and its behavior as adsorbent. Six different compounds were used for metal-blending: AlCl3, Cu(OH)2, FeSO4, KCl, MgCl2 and Mg(OH)2. Pyrolysis experiments were performed at 400 and 700 �C and the characterization of bioch...

There is a requirement to provide more efficient, sensitive, low-cost materials for remediation of contaminated water. Biochar as a sorbent is an effective and low-cost material to remove contaminants in water but its adsorption properties can be improved by impregnation of metals on the surface. In this study, a biochar derived from industrial tea...

The contamination of soils and waters with organic pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), affect a large number of sites worldwide that need remediation. In this context soils amendments can be used to immobilise PAHs while maintaining soil functioning, with biochar being a promising amendment. In this experiment, phenantrene...

The contamination of soils and waters with organic pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), affect a large number of sites worldwide that need remediation. In this context soils amendments can be used to immobilise PAHs while maintaining soil functioning, with biochar being a promising amendment. In this experiment phenantrene (...

The contamination of soils and waters with organic pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), affect a large number of sites worldwide that need remediation. In this context soils amendments can be used to immobilise PAHs while maintaining soil functioning, with biochar being a promising amendment. In this experiment phenantrene (...

This work assesses the suitability of three commercial activated carbons (ACs) and their combination with olive mill waste compost (AC + C) as amendments for the remediation of two different contaminated soils. The treatments were applied to a mining soil, and their ability to immobilize trace elements was evaluated. Besides, the efficiency of the...

An aided phytostabilisation strategy consisting of several composite amendments of iron sulphate and organic materials combined with Lupinus albus L. (white lupin) was evaluated for remediation of an As- and Cu-contaminated soil. Iron sulphate was combined with lime, paper mill sludge (PS), olive mill waste compost (OMWC) or holm oak biochar (BC) a...

Unfortunately, the address of Barbora Micháleková-Richveisová is wrong in the published article. The correct address is given below as number 6.

Biochar can be used as a sorbent to remove inorganic pollutants from water but the efficiency of sorption can be improved by activation or modification. This review evaluates various methods to increase the sorption efficiency of biochar including activation with steam, acids and bases and the production of biochar-based composites with metal oxide...

The measurement of sulphur isotope (δ34S) values in charred plant remains has the potential to inform understanding of the spatial configuration and ecology of crop production. We investigated the effects of charring, manuring, oxidation and anaerobic soil conditions on modern cereal grain/pulse seed δ34S values, and assessed the effect of chemical...

Arsenic and Cu mobility was investigated in the rhizosphere of Lupinus albus L. grown in an iron-amended contaminated soil. White lupin was grown in rhizobags in contaminated soil either left untreated or amended with iron sulphate plus lime (Fe + lime) or biochar (Fe + BC). Porewater was monitored in rhizosphere and bulk soil throughout the experi...

A new post-treatment method was applied for improving the sorption efficiency of biochar-based sorbents for anionic forms of phosphorus. The Fe-impregnation through direct hydrolysis of Fe(NO3)3 was used to produce impregnated corn cob- (IBC A), garden wood waste- (IBC B), and wood chip-derived biochars (IBC C). The qualitative and quantitative eff...

The utilization of carbonaceous materials in separation processes of radionuclides, heavy metals and metalloids represents a burning issue in environmental and waste management. The main objective of this study was to characterize the effect of chemical modification of corncob-derived biochar by Fe-impregnations on sorption efficiency of Eu and As...