Dataset Information

Rare earth elements in paddy fields from eroded granite hilly land in a southern China watershed.

ABSTRACT: There are large amounts of ion-adsorption rare earth resources in the granite red soil region of southern China, and exploitation of rare earth elements (REEs) has caused serious soil erosion and soil pollution in the area. In this study, the spatial variability of soil REEs in Zhuxi watershed, Changting County, southern China, was analyzed using a geostatistics method. The analysis produced several important results: (1) The content of total rare earth elements (TREEs) in the soil samples ranged from 56.04 to 951.76 mg kg-1, with a mean value of 255.34 mg kg-1, which was higher than the background value of soil in China. The REE variables showed strong positive Ce anomalies and strong negative Eu anomalies, with mean values of 2.26 and 0.44, respectively. (2) The contents of TREEs in five subtypes of the soils were different, but they had broadly similar curves of chondrite-normalized REE patterns, with steeper patterns from La to Eu and flatter patterns from Eu to Y. (3) The spatial variability of light rare earth elements (LREEs) was mainly affected by natural factors, but the spatial variabilities of heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) and TREEs were influenced by the combination of natural factors and anthropogenic factors. Soil erosion can contribute significantly to REE migration, especially for HREEs. (4) The distribution of TREEs showed that the high content of TREEs was in the lowland of the western watershed. By comparing the distributions of TREEs in paddy fields and hilly land, we found that the area with a high content of TREEs was greater in paddy fields than in hilly land, so we deduced that REEs migrate from hilly land to the paddy field and accumulate in the soil there.

SUBMITTER: Chen H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6738641 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Rare earth elements in paddy fields from eroded granite hilly land in a southern China watershed.

Chen Haibin H Chen Zhibiao Z Chen Zhiqiang Z Ma Qianyi Q Zhang Qingqing Q

PloS one 20190911 9

There are large amounts of ion-adsorption rare earth resources in the granite red soil region of southern China, and exploitation of rare earth elements (REEs) has caused serious soil erosion and soil pollution in the area. In this study, the spatial variability of soil REEs in Zhuxi watershed, Changting County, southern China, was analyzed using a geostatistics method. The analysis produced several important results: (1) The content of total rare earth elements (TREEs) in the soil samples range ...[more]

PMID: 31509591

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Project description:Collapsing gullies are among the most severe soil erosion problems in the tropical and subtropical areas of southern China. However, few studies have examined the relationship of soil particle size distribution (PSD) changes with land-use patterns in the alluvial fans of collapsing gullies. Recently, the fractal method has been applied to estimate soil structure and has proven to be an effective tool in analyzing soil properties and their relationships with other eco-environmental factors. In this study, the soil fractal dimension (D), physico-chemical properties and their relationship with different land-use patterns in alluvial fans were investigated in an experiment that involved seven collapsing gully areas in seven counties of southern China. Our results demonstrated that different land-use patterns of alluvial fans had a significant effect on soil physico-chemical properties. Compared to grasslands and woodlands, farmlands and orchards generally contained more fine soil particles (silt and clay) and fewer coarse particles, whereas significant differences were found in the fractal dimension of soil PSD in different land-use patterns. Specifically, the soil fractal dimension was lower in grasslands and higher in orchards relative to that of other land-use patterns. The average soil fractal dimension of grasslands had a value that was 0.08 lower than that of orchards. Bulk density was lower but porosity was higher in farmlands and orchards. Saturated moisture content was lower in woodlands and grasslands, but saturated hydraulic conductivity was higher in all four land-use patterns. Additionally, the fractal dimension had significant linear relationships with the silt, clay and sand contents and soil properties and exhibited a positive correlation with the clay (R2 = 0.976, P<0.001), silt (R2 = 0.578, P<0.01), organic carbon (R2 = 0.777, P<0.001) and saturated water (R2 = 0.639, P<0.01) contents but a negative correlation with gravel content (R2 = 0.494, P<0.01), coarse sand content (R2 = 0.623, P<0.01) and saturated hydraulic conductivity (R2 = 0.788, P<0.001). However, the fractal dimension exhibited no significant correlation with pH, bulk density or total porosity. Furthermore, the second-degree polynomial equation was found to be more adequate for describing the correlations between soil fractal dimension and particle size distribution. The results of this study demonstrate that a fractal dimension analysis of soil particle size distribution is a useful method for the quantitative description of different land-use patterns in the alluvial fans of collapsing gullies in southern China.

Dataset Information

Rare earth elements in paddy fields from eroded granite hilly land in a southern China watershed.

Publications

Rare earth elements in paddy fields from eroded granite hilly land in a southern China watershed.

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