Distribution and accumulation of antimony in plants in the super-large Sb deposit areas, China

Abstract: Antimony (Sb) distribution and accumulation in plants in Xikuangshan Sb deposit area, the only one super-large Sb deposit in the world, Hunan, China were investigated. Results show that soils were severely polluted with the average Sb concentrations up to 5949.20mg kg−1. Sb widely occurred in 34 plants with various concentrations ranging from 3.92mg kg− 1 to 143.69mg kg−1, Equisetaceae family has the highest concentration (98.23mg kg−1) while Dryopteridacea family has the lowest one (6.43mg kg−1). H. ramosissima species of Equisetaceae family had the highest Sb average concentration of 98.23mg kg−1 and P. vittata species of Pteridaceae family showed advantage of accumulating Sb from the contaminated environment (Biological Accumulation Coefficient, BAC=0.08). Almost all species enriched Sb in their upground part such as shoot, leaf and flower (Biological Transfer Coefficient, BTC>1), which may attribute to the high acropetal coefficient and Sb transformation from the atmosphere to the plants. P. phaseoloides and D. indicum showed predominantly accumulation of Sb in the upground part with BTC of 6.65 and 5.47, respectively. From the low bioavailable fraction in soils and weak relationship between total soil concentrations in soils and plants, it seems that the Sb bioavailability was limited and varied with different soil sites as well as plant species. Those observations would be significant to the phytoaccumulation and phytoremediation of plants and ecological and environmental risk assessment in Sb contaminated areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]