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Ecosystem services provided by heavy metal-contaminated soils in China

  • SUITMA 8: Soils and Sediments in Urban and Mining Areas
  • Published:
Journal of Soils and Sediments Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Soils provide a variety of ecosystem services (ESs) that are crucial to food security, water security, energy security, climate change abatement, and biodiversity, especially in densely populated countries such as China. At present, China is facing great challenges from serious soil heavy metal (HM) contamination which has damaged soil ESs and soil security. In this paper, we evaluate the ESs that contaminated soils can potentially provide before and after remediation, and we explore the connections between these ESs and the achievement of soil security in China.

Materials and methods

After an introduction to the concepts of ESs and soil security and a review of the current status of soil HM contamination in China, the ESs that can potentially be provided by HM-contaminated soils are discussed. Finally, we discuss the current remediation status of HM-contaminated soils from the standpoint of optimizing the ability of these soils to provide ESs.

Results and discussion

The status of the provision of ESs by HM-contaminated soils of croplands, brownfields, and mining wastelands is described in detail. Contaminated cropland soils fail to provide provisioning (e.g., food production), cultural, and regulating services, while the regulating and supporting services of brownfield soils are greatly reduced. The ESs of mining wasteland soils have been severely damaged, resulting in a high potential for contamination of surrounding ecosystems. Recent soil remediation projects have demonstrated that the damaged ESs of HM-contaminated soils can be restored, which would enhance Chinese soil security. However, it has often been the case that only visible ESs (e.g., food production and vegetation cover) are addressed, while other less noticeable but important services (e.g., water quality and biodiversity) are neglected. Therefore, we propose a framework for the evaluation of ESs provided by HM-contaminated soils.

Conclusions

The ESs that could potentially be provided by HM-contaminated soils would help to achieve soil security in China, not only by improving food security, water security, and energy security but also by helping to protect soil biodiversity and abate global climate change. The ESs provided by HM-contaminated soils should be taken into account in soil policy and management systems as well as by the remediation industry.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Special Fund of Environmental Protection Research for Public Welfare (201509037) from the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China and National Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists of China (No. 41225004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Kengbo Ding, Hang Wei, Wenjun Yang, Shizhong Wang, Yetao Tang & Rongliang Qiu

  2. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Kengbo Ding, Hang Wei, Shizhong Wang, Yetao Tang & Rongliang Qiu

  3. School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Kengbo Ding, Qing Wu & Juan Tao

  4. Laboratoire Sols et Environnement, UMR 1120, Université de Lorraine, 2 avenue de la Forêt de Haye, TSA 40602, 54518, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France

    Geoffroy Séré, Guillaume Echevarria & Jean Louis Morel

  5. INRA, Laboratoire Sols et Environnement, UMR 1120, 2 avenue de la Forêt de Haye, TSA 40602, 54518, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France

    Geoffroy Séré, Guillaume Echevarria & Jean Louis Morel

Authors
  1. Kengbo Ding
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  2. Qing Wu
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  3. Hang Wei
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  4. Wenjun Yang
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  5. Geoffroy Séré
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  6. Shizhong Wang
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  7. Guillaume Echevarria
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  8. Yetao Tang
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  9. Juan Tao
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  10. Jean Louis Morel
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  11. Rongliang Qiu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qing Wu.

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Responsible editor: Maxine J. Levin

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Ding, K., Wu, Q., Wei, H. et al. Ecosystem services provided by heavy metal-contaminated soils in China. J Soils Sediments 18, 380–390 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-016-1547-6

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