Abstract
Cadmium in soils not only reduces crop yield and quality but also threatens the safety of human health and wildlife due to bioaccumulation. Baiyin City, a typical industrial region located in northwest China, was evaluated to examine the spatial distribution of cadmium. We simulated soil cadmium concentrations in the laboratory, based on levels found at local sampling sites, to examine how both Medicago sativa and Zea mays plants accumulate cadmium. The experimental results revealed that cadmium in all soil samples exceeded China’s national standard levels for general farmland; in addition, cadmium accumulation in all tissues of M. sativa and Z. mays exceeded the national fodder standards. Therefore, M. sativa and Z. mays from the study area should not be used for fodder. However, about 36% of the planting area of M. sativa and Z. mays can be used for phytoextraction because of cadmium accumulation. For soil pollution management, we suggest dividing the study area into three different regions, including a non-planting region, a phytoremediation region, and a planting region. Our soil management model can effectively help local people to avoid food safety risks and to realize sustainable development of soil utilization in contaminated areas.
Highlights
With rapid global economic and industrial development, pollutants have been released into the environment in many countries around the world [1]
The cadmium content in Z. mays showed the same pattern as in M. sativa, with cadmium content values reaching 1529, 811, and 466 mg kg−1 dry biomass in the roots, stems, and leaves, respectively (Table 2). These results indicate that most of the cadmium taken up by M. sativa and Z. mays plants remained in the roots and only a minor amount of cadmium was transported into the stems and leaves, especially in M. sativa
These results indicate that 25 mg kg−1 CdCl2 treatment was the semi-lethal dose for M. sativa and Z. mays, meaning that when the cadmium concentrations in soil are higher than 25 mg kg−1, plants cannot grow
Summary
With rapid global economic and industrial development, pollutants have been released into the environment in many countries around the world [1]. Heavy metals, due to their biotoxicity and non-degradability, are especially problematic [2]. Heavy metal pollution in industrial regions requires environmental management and remediation and must be considered in the context of agricultural land use and development [3,4]. Cadmium is an example of a heavy metal that is highly toxic for plant growth [5,6]. Cadmium uptake in plants occurs in the roots via essential metal transporters and is partly translocated aboveground [7,8,9]. Cadmium in soils reduces crop yield and quality and threatens both animal and human health because this metal can bioaccumulate within a food chain [10,11]. Efforts have been made to prevent such pollution, heavy metals, pose a risk to food safety in areas where metal mining takes place, such as our study area in Northwest China [12]
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