Cadmium is a metal with rather low boiling and melting points, and no known biological function. It is estimated that approximately 70 per cent of environmental Cd has been produced anthropogenically in the past 30 years. Natural occurrence of Cd is closely linked to ores of zinc, lead-zinc and lead-copper-zinc. Its presence is limited to metallic forms, as no organometallic compounds of Cd have been detected in environmental samples.
The availability of Cd to organisms is greatly influenced by physico-chemical properties such as redox, pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), type of soil, and organic matter content. Clays with high cation exchange capacity (e.g., montmorillonite) may protect organisms from Cd toxicity, and thus the toxicity of this particular metal is closely linked to the presence of clay minerals with this adsorption-exchange property (Thornton, 1981). Synergistic and antagonistic metal uptake can also influence the biogeochemical cycle of Cd and ultimately its...
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Bibliography
Thornton, I. (ed.). 1981. Applied Environmental Geochemistry. New York: Academic Press, 501 pp.
Wood, J. M., 1974. Biological cycles for toxic elements in the environment. Science, 185, 1049–52.
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© 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Campbell, I.T., Brand, U., Morrison, J.O. (1999). Cadmium pollution and toxicity. In: Environmental Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4494-1_45
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4494-1_45
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