ABSTRACT
Inorganic toxins can therefore significantly affect biomass quality and production in both unmanaged and managed ecosystems. By 2010 there was also significant evidence that total global emissions of inorganic toxins to the environment were increasing again, especially in the rapidly growing economies of China, India, and Brazil. The release of inorganic toxins into the environment is often associated with emissions from mining and industry, but other human activities also increase their availability in soils. Plants are adapted to keep the effects of routine exposure to inorganic toxins within physiological limits. Some plants with little homeostatic control are hypersensitive to inorganic toxins, but homeostatic mechanisms have also provided the basis for the adaptations that enable some plants to inhabit areas that contain particularly high concentrations of inorganic toxins. Genotoxicity of inorganic toxins can be induced by the effects of reactive oxygen species on DNA.
