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Twenty Years of Research and Development on Soil Pollution and Remediation in China pp 365–374Cite as

Soil Contamination in Arid Region of Northwest China: Status Mechanism and Mitigation

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Abstract

Soil contamination in arid region of northwest China has been regarded as a great environmental concern since its originally fragile environment and limited cultivable lands. Under the condition of global warming, land degradation and risks on human and animal health associated with soil contamination would be enhanced by altered precipitation patterns. In this paper, causes and adverse effects of heavy metal contamination in arid soil were analyzed. Interfacial processes of heavy metals were considered as well according to soil contamination regimes (single or multi-metal pollution), showing that cadmium has a high risk even though it can be adsorpted by CaCO3 or precipitated as CdCO3. Results from pot culture experiments and field investigations have demonstrated that crops and vegetables grown on arid soil would otherwise accumulate large amounts of heavy metals into their edible parts. More importantly, cadmium uptake of crops would be improved under the multi-metal contamination regime through the interaction between metals. Finally, phytoremediation with fast-growing tree species such as poplars was suggested as an appropriate approach to mitigate heavy metal contamination in arid region.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 41501337 and 41401334) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities at Lanzhou University (lzujbky-2015-138).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MOE Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems and Gansu Key Laboratory for Environmental Pollution Prediction and Control, College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Yahu Hu & Zhongren Nan

Authors
  1. Yahu Hu
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  2. Zhongren Nan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhongren Nan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China

    Yongming Luo

  2. Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, China

    Chen Tu

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Hu, Y., Nan, Z. (2018). Soil Contamination in Arid Region of Northwest China: Status Mechanism and Mitigation. In: Luo, Y., Tu, C. (eds) Twenty Years of Research and Development on Soil Pollution and Remediation in China. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6029-8_19

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