ORIGINAL ARTICLE Effects of biochar, cow bone, and eggshell on Pb availability to maize in contaminated soil irrigated with saline water Yaser A. Almaroai • Adel R. A. Usman • Mahtab Ahmad • Deok Hyun Moon • Ju-Sik Cho • Young Kyoo Joo • Choong Jeon • Sang Soo Lee • Yong Sik Ok Received: 23 October 2012 / Accepted: 30 April 2013 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Abstract Toxicity of heavy metals adversely affects environment and human health. Organic materials derived from natural matters or wastes have been applied to soils to reduce the mobility of contaminants such as heavy metals. However, the application of cow bone powder (CB), bio- char (BC), and eggshell powder (ES) is rarely investigated for the reduction of Pb bioavailability in soils irrigated with saline water. The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of CB, BC, and ES additions as immobilizing substances on Pb bioavailability in shooting range soil irrigated with deionized and saline water. Each additive of CB, BC, and ES at 5 % (w/w) was mixed with soils and then the deionized and saline water were irrigated for 21 days. With deionized water irrigation, the soils treated with CB, BC, and ES exhibited higher pH when compared with saline water irrigation. With saline water irrigation, the electrical conductivity, water-soluble anions, and cations were significantly increased in soils treated with CB, BC, and ES. The water-soluble Pb in soils treated with CB, BC, and ES was significantly decreased with saline water irrigation. On the other hand, the water-soluble Pb in soil treated with CB was increased with deionized water irrigation. Only BC with saline water irrigation decreased the Pb concentration in maize shoots. Keywords Shooting range Á Cow bones Á Biochar Á Eggshells Á Immobilization Á Maize Introduction Heavy metals are well-known toxic contaminants for plants, animals, and humans (Sharma and Dubey 2005). Shooting range soil is one of the mostly contaminated soils with Y. A. Almaroai Á A. R. A. Usman Á M. Ahmad Á S. S. Lee (&) Á Y. S. Ok (&) Korea Biochar Research Center and Department of Biological Environment, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, Korea e-mail: sslee97@kangwon.ac.kr Y. S. Ok e-mail: soilok@kangwon.ac.kr Y. A. Almaroai Department of Biology, College of Science, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 673, Mecca, Saudi Arabia A. R. A. Usman Department of Soils and Water, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut 71526, Egypt M. Ahmad University Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi 46300, Pakistan D. H. Moon Department of Environmental Engineering, Chosun University, Gwangju 501-759, Korea J.-S. Cho Department of Bio-environmental Sciences, Sunchon National University, Suncheon 540-950, Korea Y. K. Joo Division of Biological Science and Technology, Yonsei University, Wonju 220-710, Korea C. Jeon Department of Biochemical Engineering, Gangneung-Wonju National University, Gangneung 210-702, Korea 123 Environ Earth Sci DOI 10.1007/s12665-013-2533-6