Soil quality changes of rare earth tailings before and after reclamation in south Jiangxi Province, China

• Main Authors: ZHOU Cai-yun, ZHANG Qin, ZHAO Xiao-min, WAN Guang-yue, CHENG Xiao-di, GUO Xi
• Format: Article
• Language: zho
• Published: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture 2019-01-01
• Series: Journal of Agricultural Resources and Environment
• Subjects: reclamation, ion-adsorption type rare earth, leaching agent, acidification, heavy metal, soil nutrient
• Online Access: http://www.aed.org.cn/nyzyyhjxb/html/2019/1/20190111.htm
• ISSN: 2095-6819; 2095-6819

In order to study the effect of land reclamation on topsoil quality in in-situ leaching rare earth tailings, an in-situ leaching ionadsorption type rare earth tailings from Longnan County Ganzhou City was studied. The soil quality changes before and after reclamation were investigated through NH₄⁺ concentration, soil pH value, soil nutrient content and heavy metal content. The results showed that after reclamation the concentration of NH₄⁺ decreased from 89.00 mg·kg^-1 to 8.70 mg·kg^-1, and soil pH increased from 4.15 to 5.16. The comprehensive index of soil fertility decreased from 0.44 to 0.31. The Nemerow integrated pollution index of non-rare earth heavy metal indicated that the pollution level of tailing was clean before and after reclamation, but the geoaccumulation index of rare earth heavy metal showed that the pollution levels of tailing before and after reclamation were unpolluted to moderately polluted and unpolluted, respectively. Hence, land reclamation could significantly alleviate leaching agent residue, soil acidification and heavy metal pollution, but did not alleviate soil fertility degradation.