In-situ stabilization of Cd by sepiolite co–applied with organic amendments in contaminated soils

Abstract Field experiments was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of sepiolite (S), sepiolite + fungi residues (SFR) and sepiolite + vermicompost (SVC) on in situ immobilization remediation of Cd contaminated soils. The results showed that treatments of S, SFR and SVC decreased soil Cd availability by 15.2–47.8%, 17.5–44.9% and 13.2–44.9%, respectively, when compared with the control groups. Moreover, the content of Cd in edible parts of Lactuca sativa L., Cichorium endivia L. and Brassica campestris L. was experienced a decrease of 15.9–41.9%, 1.6–38.0% and 29.0–37.4% reduction, respectively, under the amended soil. The improvement of soil fertilizer was obtained under addition of SVC and SFR, while the amounts of available P, K, organic matter, microbial carbon, microbial nitrogen and dehydrogenase activity under S treated soils were increased by 9.6–68.2%, 1.2–28.3%, 37.5–70.5%, 4.1–121.0%, 220–640% and 6.8–56.8%, respectively, in contrast to CK. Moreover, high-throughput sequencing analysis showed that the combined treated soils got higher values of alpha diversity indices, Chao1, ACE and Shannon. The number of dominant phyla (Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, Crenarchaeota) and genera (Aquicella, Lysobacter, Candidatus Nitrososphaera, Sphingopyxis, Mesorhizobium) were enhanced. Therefore, the use of sepiolite and organic amendments could be an adequate strategy to immobilization remediation of Cd–contaminated soils.