Abstract
Soil selenium (Se) levels deeply affect the Se intake in the human body, and the origins of soil Se are significant for the utilization of Se-rich soils and local human health. The Se origins of Se-rich soils were detected by comparing surface soil Se levels and exogenous soil Se fluxes in two areas with different parent rocks. Soil Se levels in Kuangkeng Town (0.095–0.631 mg/kg) are higher than those in the Cangshan Subdistrict (0.044–0.526 mg/kg). However, the net flux of exogenous soil Se in Cangshan Subdistrict (0.793 g/ha/y) is observed to be 2.7 times that in Kuangkeng Town (0.294 g/ha/y). The geological background of Ordovician carbonate in Kuangkeng is confirmed to be responsible for the Se-rich soil. Se enriches in soil with the leaching of numerous CaMg(CO3)2 in Ordovician carbonates during weathering, which is the important Se origin of Se-rich soil. Soil Se levels overlying Ordovician are also significantly higher than those overlying Cambrian and Quaternary strata, and the geostatistical analysis also indicates a dominating Se source of parent rocks. The geochemical cycles of soil Se are forwarded. Therefore, Ordovician carbonates should be of concern for Se-rich soils although they have low-Se levels.
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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This research is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2022MD032, ZR2020MG064).
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This research is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2022MD032, ZR2020MG064).
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QD and QC conceived and designed the experiments. QC, YZ, and XW contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools. SL, YZ, QM, FL, and HG performed the experiments. QC and YZ analyzed the data. YZ and QC writing—original draft. QD and FL review, and editing.
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Deng, Q.H., Zhao, Y., Li, S. et al. Characteristics and the possible origins of selenium in surface soil in Lanling County, Shandong Province, China. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 21, 4265–4278 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-05230-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-05230-y