Abstract: A pot experiment was conducted to study the effects of exogenous dimethylarsinic acid (DMA) on the growth of Brassica campestris and the bioavailability of soil arsenic (As). With the increasing concentration of applied DMA, the emergence rate and biomass of B. campestris increased at low concentration DMA, but decreased at high concentration DMA. When the DMA concentration reach ed 90 mg·kg^-1, the emergence rate and biomass of B. campestris in the second cropping decreased by 9.5% and 57.0%, respectively,compared with those in the control, indicating that exogenous DMA had longer term effects on the growth of B. campestris. The soil available As and the As uptake by B. campestris  all increased with increasing concentration of exogenous DMA, and there existed significant correlations among them. After applied into soil, the exogenous DMA demethylated, with As(V) as the main product and lesser amount of As (III), and the concentrations of soil As(V) and As(III) increased with increasing application rate of exogenous DMA.

Key words: dimethylarsinic acid, Brassica campestris, bioavailability, demethylation