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Revegetation of a barren rare earth mine using native plant species in reciprocal plantation: effect of phytoremediation on soil microbiological communities

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Abstract

Over-exploration of rare earth elements causes soil desertification and environmental degradation. However, the restoration of rare earth mine tailings requires the recovery of both vegetation and soil microbiota. Accordingly, the present study aimed to compare the efficacy of restoring mine tailings using organic compost and native plants (Miscanthus sinensis, Pinus massoniana, Bambusa textilis, or a mixture of all three). After three years, the mixed plantation harbored tenfold greater plant richness than that in the barren land. Among these, M. sinensis played a dominant role across all restored areas. The microbial communities of the soils were assessed using high-throughput 16S rDNA gene sequencing. A total of 34,870 16S rDNA gene sequences were obtained and classified into 15 bacterial phyla and 36 genera. The dominant genus across all the restored soils was Burkholderia, and the bacterial diversity of restored soils was greater than that of soils from either unrestored or natural (unexploited) areas, with the M. sinensis plantation yielding the greatest diversity. The effects of phytoremediation were mainly driven by changes in nutrient and metal contents. These results indicate that M. sinensis significantly improves phytoremediation and that mixed planting is ideal for restoring the soils of abandoned rare earth mines.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Qing X. Li and Bo Fu from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Muhammad Qasim Shahid from South China Agricultural University, for their comments on this manuscript.

Funding

This work was funded by project No. 2016A020207004 supported by the Sci-Tech department of Guangdong Province and the National Sci-Tech support plan from MOST of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Agriculture and Biology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, 510225, Guangdong, China

    Lin Zhang, Shenghong Liu, Peng Zhang, Chanjuan Ye & Hong Liang

  2. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100094, China

    Lin Zhang

  3. College of Tropical Agriculture and Forestry, Guangdong Agriculture Industry Business Polytechnic College, Guangzhou, 510507, China

    Wen Liu

Authors
  1. Lin Zhang
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  2. Wen Liu
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  3. Shenghong Liu
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  4. Peng Zhang
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  5. Chanjuan Ye
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  6. Hong Liang
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Correspondence to Hong Liang.

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Appendix

Appendix

Fig. 7
figure 7

Effects of 3-year revegetation by growing native plants at the exploited rare earth mine site in Renju Town, Pingyuan County, Guangdong. a. Restoration by P. massoniana plantation; b. restored by mixed plantation (P. massoniana + B. textilis + M. sinensis); c. restoration by B. textilis plantation; d. native herbs displacing planted herbage at the restoration plot by M. sinensis plantation (June 21, 2016)

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Fig. 8
figure 8

Relationship between soil nutrients and plantations by principal components analysis

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Fig. 9
figure 9

Structure of soil bacteria at phyla level in different plantation plots

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Table 4 Plantation in restoration plots at the exploited rare earth mine land
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Table 5 Characteristic of primer and sequence used in this study
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Table 6 16S rDNA sequence accession number of soil samples from different plantation areas
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Table 7 Species and abundances of the plant communities in the restored plots with different plantations
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Table 8 Quality of surface water in the restored area with different plantations
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Table 9 Relationship between the plant community traits and microbial community traits and the soil nutrient
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Table 10 Comparison of the rare earth soil bacteria in different plantations
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Zhang, L., Liu, W., Liu, S. et al. Revegetation of a barren rare earth mine using native plant species in reciprocal plantation: effect of phytoremediation on soil microbiological communities. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 2107–2119 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06645-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06645-2

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