Abstract
Mine tailings are one of main causes of diffused heavy metal pollution since the heavy metals in there may acquire mobility. The current knowledge of the processes at work in long-term phytoremediation by woody species remains insufficient. Through a 4-year field study, we evaluated the phytoextraction efficiency of Populus deltoides CL. ‘Xianglin 90’ grown on a mine tailing co-polluted by Cd, Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb, and Zn. The concentrations of Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn in the rhizospheric soil were reduced by amounts ranging from 12.86 to 42.19% during the study period. Bioconcentration factors and translocation factors showed that the accumulation of Cd and Zn occurring in the shoots was the most effective. Combined with the considerable biomass produced by poplar, the extracted amounts of Cd and Zn could reach 0.61 g and 10.66 g plant−1, respectively, in which the shoots account for 77.3% (Cd) and 89.0% (Zn) of the overall extraction amounts. Acid-soluble Cd and Zn increased by 5.49% and 4.29%, respectively, in the rhizosphere compared to the bulk soil, indicating that poplar enhanced the mobility of Cd and Zn in the rhizosphere, which explained its ability for bioaccumulation and root–shoot translocation. Moreover, calculated time required to address the issue of Cd and Zn pollution was theoretically shortened by more than half from 2015 to 2019. This study brings new insights into the long-term effects of phytoextraction on the concentration, fractionation, and transportation of heavy metals and confirms the potential of poplar as a Cd and Zn remediation species.
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Funding
Financial supports were from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51808216, 51776188, 21805244, 51709285), Hunan Science and Technology Planning Project, China (2018RS3109), Science and Technology International Cooperation Project of Changsha City (kq1907082), Training Program for Excellent Young Innovators of Changsha (kq1802010, kq1802040), Hunan Forestry Science and Technology Project (XLK201801, XLK201908), and the Science and Technology Innovation Project of Hunan Province 2018NK2051. The Hunan Ecology and Environment Department provided financial support on mine dump’s phytoremediation.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. YGS created the research idea and wrote the manuscript. NT collected and analyzed the samples and analyzed the statistics. HL supervised the research results and provided financial support. GC led and organized the research activity and supervised the research results. LJJ performed informatics analyses and designed the methodology. ZLH and ZGZ analyzed the statistics and experiments data. JH provided research instruments. ZJW and CLF participated in laboratory experiments. XZ led and organized the research activity, analyzed the statistics, and revised the manuscript. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Suo, Y., Tang, N., Li, H. et al. Long-term effects of phytoextraction by a poplar clone on the concentration, fractionation, and transportation of heavy metals in mine tailings. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 47528–47539 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13864-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13864-z