title: Evaluation of soil amendments as a remediation alternative for cadmium-contaminated soils under cacao plantations.
abstract: Elevated plant-available cadmium (Cd) in soils results in contamination to cacao (Theobroma cacao L) beans. Effectiveness of vermicompost and zeolite in reducing available Cd in three cacao-growing soils was studied under laboratory conditions. Sorption-desorption experiments were conducted in soils and amendments. Cadmium was added at 0 or 5 mg kg(-1) (spiked), then, amendments were incorporated at 0, 0.5, or 2 %. Amended soils were incubated at room temperature for 28 days. Plant-available Cd was determined using 0.01 M CaCl2 (WSE) and Mehlich 3 (M3) extraction procedures in subsamples taken from individual bags at six time intervals. Soils and amendments displayed different sorption characteristics and a better fit was attained with Freundlich model (R (2) > 0.82). Amendments were ineffective in reducing extractable Cd in non-spiked soils. In Cd-spiked soils, vermicompost at 2 % significantly reduced WSE-Cd (P < 0.01) from 3.36, 0.54, and 0.38 mg kg(-1) to values lower that instrument's detection in all the three soils and significantly diminished M3-extractable Cd (P < 0.05) from 4.62 to 4.11 mg kg(-1) in only one soil. Vermicompost at 0.5 % significantly decreased WSE-Cd (P < 0.01) from 3.04 and 0.31 to 1.69 and 0.20 mg kg(-1), respectively, in two soils with low sorption capacity for Cd. In contrast, zeolite failed to reduce WSE- or M3-extractable Cd in all studied soils. A negative correlation occurred between soil pH and WSE-Cd (r > -0.89, P < 0.01). The decrease in WSE-Cd appears to be associated with the increase in pH of the vermicompost-amended soils.
authors.affiliation: Indian River Research and Education Center, University of Florida, IFAS, Fort Pierce, FL, 34945, USA.|Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral, Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Centro de Investigaciones Biotecnologicas del Ecuador, Guayaquil, Ecuador.|Facultad de Ciencias de la Ingenieria, Universidad Estatal de Milagro, Milagro, Ecuador.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chavez
authors.affiliation: Indian River Research and Education Center, University of Florida, IFAS, Fort Pierce, FL, 34945, USA. zhe@ufl.edu.
authors.forename: Z L
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Indian River Research and Education Center, University of Florida, IFAS, Fort Pierce, FL, 34945, USA.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Stoffella
authors.affiliation: Soils and Water Science Department, University of Florida, IFAS, Gainesville, FL, 32601, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mylavarapu
authors.affiliation: Soils and Water Science Department, University of Florida, IFAS, Gainesville, FL, 32601, USA.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: United State Department of Agriculture, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, MD, 20705, USA.
authors.forename: V C
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Baligar
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D002099:Cacao; D002104:Cadmium / Q000032:analysis*; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D002104:Cadmium
keywords: Cacao-growing soils; Plant-available Cd; Single extraction; Vermicompost; Zeolite