Changes in Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn Fractionation and Liberation Due to Mussel Shell Amendment on a Mine Soil

Land Degradation and Development 27 (2016) 1276–1285

DOI: 10.1002/ldr.2505

Mining activities are related to relevant environmental pollution issues that should be controlled. We used sequential extractions to fractionate Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn retained on unamended or mussel shell-amended mine soil samples, all of them treated with a mixture of the five heavy metals (total metal concentration of 1·57 mmol L−1), after 1, 7 and 30 days of incubation. In addition, we used the stirred flow chamber technique to study the release of each of the five heavy metals from these different unamended and shell-amended soil samples. The results indicate that the shell amendment caused a decrease in the most soluble fraction, while increasing the most recalcitrant (least mobile) fraction. With equivalent implications, the stirred flow chamber experiments showed that mussel shell amendment was associated to a decrease in heavy metal release and increased retention. The highest mussel shell dose and incubation time caused the most relevant changes in pH values and thus in metal retention, also indicating the importance of pH modifications in the mechanism of retention acting in the amended samples. In view of these results, the use of mussel shell amendment can be encouraged to increase heavy metal retention in acid mine soils, in order to minimise risks of environmental pollution. 

Nickel, Lead and Zinc Sorption in a Reclaimed Settling Pond Soil

Pedosphere

Volume 26, Issue 1, February 2016, Pages 39-48

doi:10.1016/S1002-0160(15)60020-0

The wastes used to amend soils sometimes have high concentrations of metals such as nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn). To determine the capacity of soils to retain these metals, the sorption capacities of different mine soils with and without reclamation treatments (tree vegetation and waste amendment) for Ni, Pb and Zn in individual and competitive situations were evaluated using the batch sorption technique. The untreated settling pond soil had low capacity for Ni, Pb and Zn retention. The site amended with wastes (sewage sludges and paper mill residues) increased the sorption capacity most, probably because of the higher concentrations of soil components with high retention capacity such as carbon and clay fraction. No significant competition was observed between metals in the competitive sorption experiment, indicating that the maximum of sorption was not achieved by adding 0.5 mmol L−1 of metal. We can conclude that, despite the possible additions of Ni, Pb and Zn from wastes to degraded soils, sewage sludges and paper mill residues have a high sorption capacity that would prevent the metals from being in a mobile form.