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Journal of Arid Land
Journal of Arid Land  2022, Vol. 14 Issue (11): 1258-1273    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-022-0107-8
Research article     
Geochemical signatures and human health risk evaluation of rare earth elements in soils and plants of the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China
LI Leiming1, WU Jun2,*(), LU Jian3,4, ZHANG Xiying1,5, XU Juan6
1Key Laboratory of Comprehensive and Highly Efficient Utilization of Salt Lake Resources, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China
2Yantai Research Institute, Harbin Engineering University, Yantai 264006, China
3CAS Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai 264003, China
4Shandong Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes, Yantai 264003, China
5Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory of Geology and Environment of Salt Lakes, Xining 810008, China
6State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
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Abstract  

Information on rare earth elements (REEs) in soils and plants of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is very limited. Therefore, in this study, we performed field sampling to explore the geochemical signatures and human health risk of REEs in soils and plants of the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. A total of 127 soil samples and 127 plant samples were collected from the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to acquire the geochemical signatures and related human health risks of REEs. The mean total concentrations of REEs in soils and plants of the study area reached 178.55 and 10.06 mg/kg, respectively. The light REEs in soils and plants accounted for 76% and 77% of the total REEs, respectively. REEs showed significantly homogenous distribution in soils but inhomogeneous distribution in plants of the study area. Characteristic parameters indicated that light REEs were enriched and fractionated significantly, while heavy REEs were moderately fractionated in soils and plants. REEs in soils and plants showed significantly negative Europium anomaly. Cerium showed slightly positive anomaly in plants and slight anomaly in soils. The normalized distribution patterns of REEs were generally similar in the analyzed soils and the corresponding plants of the study area. The average bio-concentration factor of REEs ranged from 0.0478 (Scandium) to 0.0604 (Europium), confirming a small accumulation of REEs by plants. Health risks caused by REEs in soils and plants were negligible, while risks for adults were lower than those for children. This study provides important information on REEs in soils and plants of the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Key words： rare earth elements      geochemical signatures      human health risk      carcinogenic risk      bio-concentration factor      Qinghai-Tibet Plateau     
Received: 06 July 2022      Published: 30 November 2022
Corresponding Authors: *WU Jun (E-mail: wujunlisa@163.com)
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LI Leiming
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XU Juan
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LI Leiming, WU Jun, LU Jian, ZHANG Xiying, XU Juan. Geochemical signatures and human health risk evaluation of rare earth elements in soils and plants of the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. Journal of Arid Land, 2022, 14(11): 1258-1273.

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http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-022-0107-8     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2022/V14/I11/1258

Fig. 1 Study area and soil and plant sampling sites
Rare earth element and parameter Soils (mg/kg) Plants (mg/kg) NASCa (mg/kg) Background values in Qinghai Province of China (soils)b (mg/kg) Background values in China (soils)c (mg/kg)
Min Mean Max SD Min Mean Max SD
La 8.36 31.04 54.26 6.6 0.10 1.76 8.66 1.7 16.00 32.80 39.70
Ce 17.09 63.66 112.43 13.2 0.44 3.78 16.70 3.4 33.00 58.30 68.40
Pr 1.82 7.32 12.50 1.6 0.02 0.39 1.93 0.4 3.90 5.87 7.17
Nd 6.95 26.95 46.38 5.8 0.08 1.43 7.19 1.4 16.0 23.70 26.40
Sm 1.33 5.18 8.94 1.1 0.02 0.28 1.45 0.3 3.50 4.77 5.22
Eu 0.33 1.11 3.26 0.3 0.00 0.07 0.32 0.1 1.10 0.93 1.03
Gd 1.31 5.10 8.81 1.0 0.02 0.28 1.41 0.3 3.30 4.15 4.60
Tb 0.18 0.68 1.24 0.1 0.00 0.04 0.19 0.0 0.60 0.60 0.63
Dy 0.99 3.56 6.68 0.7 0.01 0.20 1.02 0.2 3.70 3.80 4.13
Ho 0.20 0.69 1.29 0.1 0.00 0.04 0.20 0.0 0.80 0.77 0.87
Er 0.64 2.19 6.17 0.7 0.01 0.11 0.58 0.1 2.20 2.32 2.54
Tm 0.08 0.28 0.51 0.1 0.00 0.02 0.08 0.0 0.30 0.33 0.37
Yb 0.53 1.82 3.32 0.4 0.01 0.11 0.52 0.1 2.20 2.07 2.44
Lu 0.08 0.27 0.47 0.1 0.00 0.02 0.08 0.0 0.30 0.32 0.36
Y 5.13 18.20 34.64 3.9 0.07 1.07 5.43 1.0 20.00 21.10 22.90
Sc 4.86 10.51 21.93 3.2 0.03 0.47 2.48 0.4 30.00 10.42 /
REEs 55.29 178.55 306.80 35.8 1.03 10.06 48.25 9.3 136.90 172.25 186.76
ΣLREEs 35.88 135.26 234.42 28.2 0.84 7.71 36.27 7.2 73.50 126.37 147.92
ΣHREEs 18.34 43.29 72.39 8.8 0.18 2.35 11.98 2.2 33.40 35.50 38.84
ΣLREEs/ΣHREEs 2.75 4.14 6.09 0.4 2.95 4.21 6.74 0.6 2.20 3.56 3.81
(La/Yb)N 1.71 2.36 3.61 0.3 1.52 2.22 3.01 0.3 / 2.18 2.24
(La/Sm)N 1.16 1.31 1.54 0.1 1.08 1.36 1.67 0.1 / 1.50 1.66
(Gd/Yb)N 1.50 1.87 2.51 0.2 1.29 1.78 3.06 0.2 / 1.34 1.26
δCe 0.95 1.01 1.31 0.1 0.93 1.23 3.06 0.4 / 1.01 0.97
δEu 0.49 0.67 2.02 0.1 0.51 0.81 3.14 0.3 / 0.65 0.65
Table 1 Statistic parameters of rare earth elements (REEs) in soils and plants of the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China
Fig. S1 Pearson correlations among rare earth elements in soils (a) and plants (b) of the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. La, lanthanum; Ce, cerium; Pr, praseodymium; Nd, neodymium; Sm, samarium; Eu, europium; Gd, gadolinium; Tb, terbium; Dy, dysprosium; Ho, holmium; Er, erbium; Tm, thulium; Yb, ytterbium; Lu, lutetium; Y, yttrium; Sc, scandium.
Fig. 2 Bio-concentration factor (BCF) values of rare earth elements (REEs) in the study area. La, lanthanum; Ce, cerium; Pr, praseodymium; Nd, neodymium; Sm, samarium; Eu, europium; Gd, gadolinium; Tb, terbium; Dy, dysprosium; Y, yttrium; Ho, holmium; Er, erbium; Tm, thulium; Yb, ytterbium; Lu, lutetium; Sc, scandium. The boxes represent the range from the lower quantile (Q25) to the upper quantile (Q75). The dots and horizontal lines inside the boxes represent the means and medians, respectively. The dots outside the boxes represent outliers. The upper and lower whiskers show the range within 1.5IQR (interquartile range).
Fig. 3 Concentrations of light REEs (ΣLREEs) and heavy REEs (ΣHREEs) as well as the ratio of ΣLREEs to ΣHREEs (ΣLREEs/ΣHREEs) in soil samples (a) and plant samples (b). P-1-P-127 represent the serial number of sampling sites.
Fig. 4 (a), normalization of average REEs values and background composition in soils; (b), normalization of average REEs values in plants. NASC, North American shale composite; BC, background composition. Soil/NASC represents normalization of average REEs values in soils, BC/NASC denotes normalization of background composition in soils, and Plant/NASC represents normalization of average REEs values in plants.
Fig. 5 Non-carcinogenic risk of REEs from soils and plants in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. (a and b), non-carcinogenic risk of REEs for adults and children from soils, respectively; (c and d), non-carcinogenic risk of REEs for adults and children from plants, respectively. HI is the sum of the hazard quotient of ingestion, inhalation, and dermal adsorption.
REE Non-carcinogenic risk for children Non-carcinogenic risk for adults Carcinogenic risks
Ingestion Inhalation Dermal adsorption Total Ingestion Inhalation Dermal adsorption Total Ingestion Inhalation Dermal adsorption Total
La 1.02×10-2 7.50×10-6 2.86×10-4 1.05×10-2 4.37×10-3 3.22×10-6 1.75×10-4 4.55×10-3 8.00×10-11 6.93×10-12 2.52×10-12 8.94×10-11
Ce 2.09×10-2 1.54×10-5 5.86×10-4 2.15×10-2 8.97×10-3 6.60×10-6 3.58×10-4 9.33×10-3 1.64×10-10 1.42×10-11 5.18×10-12 1.83×10-10
Pr 2.41×10-3 1.77×10-6 6.74×10-5 2.48×10-3 1.03×10-3 7.58×10-7 4.11×10-5 1.07×10-3 1.89×10-11 1.63×10-12 5.95×10-13 2.11×10-11
Nd 8.86×10-3 6.52×10-6 2.48×10-4 9.12×10-3 3.80×10-3 2.79×10-6 1.52×10-4 3.95×10-3 6.94×10-11 6.01×10-12 2.19×10-12 7.76×10-11
Sm 1.70×10-3 1.25×10-6 4.77×10-5 1.75×10-3 7.30×10-4 5.36×10-7 2.91×10-5 7.59×10-4 1.33×10-11 1.16×10-12 4.21×10-13 1.49×10-11
Eu 3.64×10-4 2.68×10-7 1.02×10-5 3.75×10-4 1.56×10-4 1.15×10-7 6.23×10-6 1.62×10-4 2.85×10-12 2.47×10-13 9.01×10-14 3.19×10-12
Gd 1.68×10-3 1.23×10-6 4.70×10-5 1.73×10-3 7.19×10-4 5.29×10-7 2.87×10-5 7.48×10-4 1.31×10-11 1.14×10-12 4.15×10-13 1.47×10-11
Tb 2.23×10-4 1.64×10-7 6.23×10-6 2.29×10-4 9.54×10-5 7.01×10-8 3.81×10-6 9.93×10-5 1.74×10-12 1.51×10-13 5.51×10-14 1.95×10-12
Dy 1.17×10-3 8.60×10-7 3.27×10-5 1.20×10-3 5.01×10-4 3.69×10-7 2.00×10-5 5.22×10-4 9.17×10-12 7.94×10-13 2.89×10-13 1.02×10-11
Ho 2.26×10-4 1.66×10-7 6.34×10-6 2.33×10-4 9.70×10-5 7.13×10-8 3.87×10-6 1.01×10-4 1.77×10-12 1.54×10-13 5.60×10-14 1.98×10-12
Er 7.19×10-4 5.29×10-7 2.01×10-5 7.40×10-4 3.08×10-4 2.27×10-7 1.23×10-5 3.21×10-4 5.64×10-12 4.88×10-13 1.78×10-13 6.30×10-12
Tm 9.08×10-5 6.68×10-8 2.54×10-6 9.34×10-5 3.89×10-5 2.86×10-8 1.55×10-6 4.05×10-5 7.12×10-13 6.16×10-14 2.25×10-14 7.96×10-13
Yb 5.99×10-4 4.40×10-7 1.68×10-5 6.16×10-4 2.57×10-4 1.89×10-7 1.02×10-5 2.67×10-4 4.69×10-12 4.06×10-13 1.48×10-13 5.25×10-12
Lu 8.87×10-5 6.52×10-8 2.48×10-6 9.12×10-5 3.80×10-5 2.79×10-8 1.52×10-6 3.95×10-5 6.95×10-13 6.02×10-14 2.19×10-14 7.77×10-13
Y 5.99×10-3 4.40×10-6 1.68×10-4 6.16×10-3 2.57×10-3 1.89×10-6 1.02×10-4 2.67×10-3 4.69×10-11 4.06×10-12 1.48×10-12 5.24×10-11
Sc 3.45×10-3 2.54×10-6 9.67×10-5 3.55×10-3 1.48×10-3 1.09×10-6 5.91×10-5 1.54×10-3 2.71×10-11 2.34×10-12 8.55×10-13 3.03×10-11
Total 5.87×10-2 4.32×10-5 1.64×10-3 6.04×10-2 2.52×10-2 1.85×10-5 1.00×10-3 2.62×10-2 4.60×10-10 3.98×10-11 1.45×10-11 5.14×10-10
Table S1 Non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk for rare earth elements (REEs) in soils of the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China
REE Non-carcinogenic risk for children Non-carcinogenic risk for adults Carcinogenic risks
Ingestion Inhalation Dermal adsorption Total Ingestion Inhalation Dermal adsorption Total Ingestion Inhalation Dermal adsorption Total
La 5.80×10-4 4.27×10-7 1.62×10-5 5.97×10-4 2.49×10-4 1.83×10-7 9.92×10-6 2.59×10-4 4.55×10-12 3.94×10-13 1.44×10-13 5.08×10-12
Ce 1.24×10-3 9.14×10-7 3.48×10-5 1.28×10-3 5.33×10-4 3.92×10-7 2.13×10-5 5.54×10-4 9.74×10-12 8.44×10-13 3.08×10-13 1.09×10-11
Pr 1.28×10-4 9.38×10-8 3.57×10-6 1.31×10-4 5.47×10-5 4.02×10-8 3.57×10-6 5.83×10-5 1.00×10-12 8.66×10-14 3.16×10-14 1.12×10-12
Nd 4.71×10-4 3.46×10-7 1.32×10-5 4.84×10-4 2.02×10-4 1.48×10-7 8.05×10-6 2.10×10-4 3.69×10-12 3.19×10-13 1.16×10-13 4.12×10-12
Sm 9.25×10-5 6.80×10-8 2.59×10-6 9.52×10-5 3.96×10-5 2.91×10-8 1.58×10-6 4.13×10-5 7.25×10-13 6.28×10-14 2.29×10-14 8.11×10-13
Eu 2.22×10-5 1.63×10-8 6.21×10-7 2.28×10-5 9.50×10-6 6.98×10-9 3.79×10-7 9.88×10-6 1.74×10-13 1.50×10-14 5.48×10-15 1.94×10-13
Gd 9.24×10-5 6.80×10-8 2.59×10-6 9.51×10-5 3.96×10-5 2.91×10-8 1.58×10-6 4.12×10-5 7.24×10-13 6.27×10-14 2.29×10-14 8.10×10-13
Tb 1.23×10-5 9.06×10-9 3.45×10-7 1.27×10-5 5.28×10-6 3.88×10-9 2.11×10-7 5.49×10-6 9.65×10-14 8.36×10-15 3.05×10-15 1.08×10-13
Dy 6.64×10-5 4.88×10-8 1.86×10-6 6.83×10-5 2.84×10-5 2.09×10-8 1.13×10-6 2.96×10-5 5.20×10-13 4.50×10-14 1.64×10-14 5.81×10-13
Ho 1.31×10-5 9.65×10-9 3.67×10-7 1.35×10-5 5.62×10-6 4.13×10-9 2.24×10-7 5.85×10-6 1.03×10-13 8.90×10-15 3.25×10-15 1.15×10-13
Er 3.75×10-5 2.76×10-8 1.05×10-6 3.86×10-5 1.61×10-5 1.18×10-8 6.42×10-7 1.67×10-5 2.94×10-13 2.55×10-14 9.28×10-15 3.29×10-13
Tm 5.26×10-6 3.86×10-9 1.47×10-7 5.41×10-6 2.25×10-6 1.66×10-9 8.99×10-8 2.34×10-6 4.12×10-14 3.57×10-15 1.30×10-15 4.61×10-14
Yb 3.48×10-5 2.56×10-8 9.74×10-7 3.58×10-5 1.49×10-5 1.10×10-8 5.95×10-7 1.55×10-5 2.73×10-13 2.36×10-14 8.61×10-15 3.05×10-13
Lu 5.27×10-6 3.88×10-9 1.48×10-7 5.42×10-6 2.26×10-6 1.66×10-9 9.01×10-8 2.35×10-6 4.13×10-14 3.58×10-15 1.30×10-15 4.62×10-14
Y 3.51×10-4 2.58×10-7 9.82×10-6 3.61×10-4 1.50×10-4 1.11×10-7 6.00×10-6 1.56×10-4 2.75×10-12 2.38×10-13 8.68×10-14 3.07×10-12
Sc 1.55×10-4 1.14×10-7 4.34×10-6 1.59×10-4 6.64×10-5 4.88×10-8 2.65×10-6 6.91×10-5 1.21×10-12 1.05×10-13 3.83×10-14 1.36×10-12
Total 3.31×10-3 2.43×10-6 9.26×10-5 3.40×10-3 1.42×10-3 1.04×10-6 5.80×10-5 1.48×10-3 2.59×10-11 2.25×10-12 8.19×10-13 2.90×10-11
Table S2 Non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk for REEs in plants of the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China
Fig. 6 Carcinogenic risk (CR) of REEs from soils (a) and plants (b) in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China
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