Ecology

Data from China University of Geosciences Provide New Insights into Environmental Earth Science

  2012 JUL 20 (VerticalNews) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Ecology, Environment & Conservation -- A new study on Environmental Earth Science is now available. According to news reporting originating from Wuhan, People's Republic of China, by VerticalNews correspondents, researchers stated "Consuming edible plants contaminated by heavy metals transferred from soil is an important pathway for human exposure to environmental contaminants. In the past several decades, heavy metal accumulation in contaminated soil has been widely studied; however, few researches investigated the background levels of metals in plants and evaluated the difference in plants grown in soils produced from different parent rocks."

  Our news editors obtained a quote from the research by the authors from the China University of Geosciences, "In this study, a systemic survey of heavy metal distribution and accumulation in the soil-pepper system was investigated in an unpolluted area, Hainan Island, China. Levels of Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd were measured in soils and pepper fruits from five representative pepper-growing areas with different soil parent rocks (i.e. basalt, granite, sedimentary rock, metamorphic rock and alluvial deposits). Average concentrations of Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd in pepper fruits were 11.52, 0.84, 8.77 and 0.05 mg/kg, respectively. The concentrations of heavy metals in soils are controlled by the parent materials and varied greatly from in different areas. Heavy metal contents in all pepper samples were lower than the Chinese maximum contaminant levels."

  According to the news editors, the researchers concluded: "The relationship between heavy metals in soils and biological absorption coefficient (BAC) of pepper fruits suggests that the uptake ability of pepper for soil metals depends mainly on the physiological mechanism, while in some cases, the soil types and supergene environment are also important."

  For more information on this research see: Heavy metal distribution between parent soil and pepper in an unpolluted area, Hainan Island, China. Environmental Earth Sciences, 2012;66(4):1083-1089. Environmental Earth Sciences can be contacted at: Springer, 233 Spring St, New York, NY 10013, USA. (Springer - www.springer.com; Environmental Earth Sciences - www.springerlink.com/content/1866-6280/)

  The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Y. Guo, China Univ Geosci, State Key Lab Geol Proc & Mineral Resources, Wuhan 430074, People's Republic of China.

  Keywords for this news article include: Wuhan, People's Republic of China, Environmental Earth Science

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