Elemental composition, mineral characteristics and pedogenesis of serpentine soils in the Western Pacific region

Abstract

Soil quality is linked to human health and there is a need to evaluate risks, such as high background levels of chromium (Cr) and nickel (Ni) in serpentine soils. Professor Zeng-Yei Hseu is a world-leading soil scientist working on a three-year project to capture and demonstrate mineral composition and transformation in serpentine soils. This work will guide remediation techniques for contaminated soils and, in doing so, contribute to food safety and security. Hseu is based at the Soil Survey and Remediation Lab, Department of Agricultural Chemistry, National Taiwan University. He and his team are seeking to better understand factors such as soil distribution, formation, application and limit. Hseu is interested in phytoremediation, a process through which plants can remove contaminants in the soil and is looking for links between serpentine soils, the plants that grow in them and their ability to facilitate phytoremediation. He investigated the origin and bioavailability of Cr and Ni and their dynamics in serpentine soils, the risk of Cr and Ni to the food chain and identified that Cr and Ni were mainly released from respective chromites and silicates of serpentine soils. Hseu is focused on serpentine soils in the Western Pacific region and he and his team collected and analysed serpentine soils from Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines along the western Pacific island arc, as well as from a control site along the Red River Fault Zone in Vietnam. The researchers looked for the morphology and pedogenesis of different serpentine soils and mineral sources of major and trace elements in the soils.