Cadmium Sorption Characteristics of Soil Amendments and its Relationship with the Cadmium Uptake by Hyperaccumulator and Normal Plants in Amended Soils

Abstract

In order to select appropriate amendments for cropping hyperaccumulator or normal plants on contaminated soils and establish the relationship between Cd sorption characteristics of soil amendments and their capacity to reduce Cd uptake by plants, batch sorption experiments with 11 different clay minerals and organic materials and a pot experiment with the same amendments were carried out. The pot experiment was conducted with Sedum alfredii and maize (Zea mays) in a co-cropping system. The results showed that the highest sorption amount was by montmorillonite at 40.82 mg/g, while mica was the lowest at only 1.83 mg/g. There was a significant negative correlation between the n value of Freundlich equation and Cd uptake by plants, and between the logarithm of the stability constant K of the Langmuir equation and plant uptake. Humic acids (HAs) and mushroom manure increased Cd uptake by S. alfredii, but not maize, thus they are suitable as soil amendments for the co-cropping S. alfredii and maize. The stability constant K in these cases was 0.14–0.16 L/mg and n values were 1.51–2.19. The alkaline zeolite and mica had the best fixation abilities and significantly decreased Cd uptake by the both plants, with K ≥ 1.49 L/mg and n ≥ 3.59.

KEY WORDS:

• clay minerals
• organic materials
• heavy metals
• sorption constants
• Zea mays
• Sedum alfredii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 4107136) and Guangdong Province (S2011030002882) and the Science and Technology Project of Guangdong Province (grant 2010B03180006, 2012A030700003).

© Yan Sun, Qi-Tang Wu, Charles C.C. Lee, Baoqin Li, and Xinxian Long