Evaluation of Cd and Pb concentrations in soil-mulberry-silkworm system of a tailings pond, China

ABSTRACT

The ecological reconstruction and safe utilisation of a large number of tailings ponds are very important. In this study, the accumulation and transportation of cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in the soil-mulberry-silkworm system was evaluated through the mulberry planting and silkworm rearing at a tailings pond in Huayuan County, China. The results revealed that both the bioconcentration factors (BCFs) of mulberry for Cd and Pb were less than 1. The highest translocation factors (TFs) for both Cd and Pb were appeared in the stage from silkworm to excrement, followed by mulberry stem to leaf. The peak concentrations of Cd and Pb in the silkworm excrement were 2.33 mg kg⁻¹ and 6.46 mg kg⁻¹, respectively. Though the Cd and Pb contents in the cocoon shell from Yangjiazhai fitted the Technical Specifications of Ecological Textiles (GB/T 18885–2009, China), the ratio of cocoon shell was reduced by 17.06% under the stress of heavy metals. Developing the sericulture industry could be a reasonable way to utilise the tailings pond.

KEYWORDS:

• Cadmium
• lead
• mobility
• mulberry
• safe utilisation

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31901190), Hunan provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (2020JJ5275), and the science and technology innovation platform and talent plan of Hunan province (2019NK4238).

Authors’ contributions

All the authors contributed significantly to this article. Material preparation and mulberry field management were accomplished by L X Liu and T Z Long, data collection and analysis were performed by S M Jiang, R Z Huang and Z B Li. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Y B Jiang, and all authors commented on the first version of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability

The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Ethics approval

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

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