Excess and limited trace metal contents in soils and plants can limit crop yields and pose a risk for the environment and human health. This mini-review reports on the emerging approach of combining X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) with isotope analyses to improve the understanding of metal speciation and dynamics in soil-plant systems. In soils and their components, shifts in isotope compositions could be in some cases linked to changing metal speciation and thereby provide information on processes that control the phytoavailability of metals. In plants, the XAS-isotope approach has potential to improve the understanding of how complex interactions of metal speciation, redox processes, and membrane transport control metal uptake and translocation to edible plant parts. Yet, the XAS-isotope approach proves to be in a rather exploratory phase, and many research gaps remain. Such limitations can be overcome by methodological improvements and combining the approach with molecular biology and modelling approaches.

中文翻译：

---

耦合金属稳定同位素组成和 X 射线吸收光谱研究土壤-植物系统中的金属途径：一个小型综述。

土壤和植物中过量和有限的痕量金属含量会限制作物产量，并对环境和人类健康构成风险。这篇小型综述报告了将 X 射线吸收光谱 (XAS) 与同位素分析相结合以提高对土壤-植物系统中金属形态和动力学的理解的新兴方法。在土壤及其成分中，同位素组成的变化在某些情况下可能与金属形态的变化有关，从而提供有关控制金属植物有效性的过程的信息。在植物中，XAS 同位素方法有可能提高对金属形态、氧化还原过程和膜转运的复杂相互作用如何控制金属吸收和转移到可食用植物部分的理解。然而，XAS 同位素方法被证明处于相当探索的阶段，许多研究空白仍然存在。这些限制可以通过改进方法并将该方法与分子生物学和建模方法相结合来克服。