Abstract
Phytoextraction of rare earth elements (REE) from contaminated soils has gained importance during the last few decades. The Poços de Caldas municipality in Brazil is known for its mineral richness, including large reserves of REE. In this study, we report light REE (La, Ce, Sm, Pr, and Nd) in soils and plants collected in an area. Composite soil samples and plant individuals were collected, and total concentrations of LREE in soils were determined by wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF). The plant available LREE concentrations in soils were estimated upon the acetic acid method (F1 fractions) of the stepwise sequential extraction procedure, together with plant content that was analysed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The total sum concentrations of tested LREE in soils varied from 5.6 up to 37.9 g kg−1, the bioavailable fraction was ca. 1%, and a linear relationship was found between them. The only exception was Sm, whose availability was lesser and did not show a linear relationship. The concentration of LREE in non-accumulator plants varied from 1.3–950 mg kg−1 for Ce, La 1.1–99 mg kg−1, Sm 0.04–9.31 mg kg−1, Pr 0.1–24.1 mg kg−1, and Nd 0.55–81 mg kg−1. The concentration of LREE among shoots did not show a linear relation either with the available fraction or total content. The screening also revealed Christella dentata (Forssk.) Brownsey & Jermy, Thelypteridaceae family, as a promising hyperaccumulator species. The concentrations of LREE among shoots of six individuals of this species were in the ranges from 115 to 1872 mg kg−1 for Ce, La 190–703 mg kg−1, Sm 9–48 mg kg−1, Pr 32–144 mg kg−1, and Nd 105–478 mg kg−1.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to Dr. Matheus Barreto, currently at UM6P in Morocco, who helped us during the first sampling campaign and to Prof. Dr. Alexandre Salino, a systematic botanist from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), in Brazil, for helping us in the identification of plant species.
Funding
This work was supported by the grant KOROLID (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000336; PI: Hendrik Küpper) from the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports of the Czech Republic with co-financing from the European Union, from a Students International Mobility Grant from the University of South Bohemia, Česke Budějovice, Czech Republic and by Institutional Research Concept no. AVOZ61388971. Further support was provided by the Laboratory of Nuclear Instrumentation of the Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, under the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (grant 07380/2016–7) and by the Czech Academy of Sciences (RVO: 60077344; institutional funding for IPMB). H.W.P. Carvalho & C.H. Abreu are the recipients of research productivity fellowships from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (grants 306185/2020–2 and 312728/2017–4, respectively). The São Paulo Research Foundation, Brazil (FAPESP), funded a Master’s scholarship (2017/16375–4) and a Ph.D. scholarship (2020/11546–8) for E. S. Rodrigues and also a Ph.D. scholarship (2020/07721–9) for G. S. Montanha.
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Conceptualization of the study: HWPC, HK, and MV. Sample collection: HWPC and GSM. Sample processing and analysis: NA, GSM, ESR, EA, CHA-J, and RHLG. Data analysis: NA, GSM, CHA-J, and HWPC. Writing and editing: NA, GSM, ESR, EA, RHLG, MV, HK, and HWPC.
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Ashraf, N., Rodrigues, E.S., de Almeida, E. et al. Identification of potential plant species hyperaccumulating light rare earth elements (LREE) in a mining area in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 90779–90790 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22009-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22009-9