Li Chen

Northwest A & F University · Institute of Soil and Water Conservation

Soil contamination with potentially toxic elements (PTEs) is an increasing environmental problem, posing serious threats to the living organisms. Phytoremediation is a sustainable and highly accepted technology for remediation of PTE-contaminated soils. Alfalfa has been widely adopted for the phytoremediation of PTE-contaminated soils due to its la...

With the rapid development of the mining industry, the pollution of heavy metal(loid)s in soils near copper (Cu) mining sites is a significant concern worldwide. However, the pollution status and probabilistic health risks of heavy metal(loid)s of soils associated with Cu mines, have rarely been studied on a global scale. In this study, eight heavy...

Soil pollution from potentially toxic elements (PTEs) is a serious environmental issue worldwide that affects agricultural safety and human health. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), as ecosystem engineers, can alleviate PTE toxicity in crop plants. However, the comprehensive effects of AMF on crop performance in PTE-contaminated soils have not ye...

Long-term exposure to urban dust containing potentially toxic elements (PTEs) poses detrimental impacts on human health. However, studies estimating human health risks in urban dusts from a global perspective are scarce. We evaluated data for twelve PTEs in urban dusts across 59 countries from 463 published articles, including their concentrations,...

Micro/nanoplastic (MNP) pollution in soil ecosystems has become a growing environmental concern globally. However, the comprehensive impacts of MNPs on soil health have not yet been explored. We conducted a hierarchical meta-analysis of over 5000 observations from 228 articles to assess the broad impacts of MNPs on soil health parameters (represent...

Microbial remediation can maintain the sustainability of farmlands contaminated with heavy metals (HMs). However, the effects of bacterial consortium on crop growth and potential risks under HM stress, as well as its mechanisms, are still unclear compared with a single microorganism. Here, we investigated the effect of a bacterial consortium consis...

Nanobiotechnology is a potentially safe and sustainable strategy for both agricultural production and soil reme-diation, yet the potential of nanomaterials (NMs) application to remediate heavy metal(loid)-contaminated soils is still unclear. A meta-analysis with approximately 6000 observations was conducted to quantify the effects of NMs on safe cr...

Biochar application emerges as a promising and sustainable solution for the remediation of soils contaminated with potentially toxic metal (loid)s (PTMs), yet its potential to reduce PTM accumulation in crops remains to be fully elucidated. In our study, a hierarchical meta-analysis based on 276 research articles was conducted to quantify the effec...

Agricultural activities may promote the conversion of inorganic Hg to MeHg in soil. Hg and As present an extremely and a moderately contaminated level, respectively. The human health risks posed by As, Hg, and Ni merit more attention. Pokeweed may be considered as a potential Hg hyperaccumulator. Soil pollution caused by potentially toxic metal(loi...

Soil contamination by uranium presents a burgeoning global environmental concern, exerting detrimental effects on both agricultural production and soil health. Biochar, a carbonaceous material derived from biomass pyrolysis, exhibits considerable potential for remediating uranium-contaminated soils. However, a comprehensive review of the effects of...

Inorganic fertilizers are widely used to provide crops with significant amounts of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), but can exacerbate soil carbon (C) limitation and acidification. Crop residues with distinct ecological stoichiometry from inorganic fertilizers can help balance soil ecological stoichiometry and thus increase soil organic matter accu...

Microbes inhabiting deep soil layers are known to be different from their counterpart in topsoil yet remain under investigation in terms of their structure, function, and how their diversity is shaped. The microbiome of deep soils (>1 m) is expected to be relatively stable and highly independent from climatic conditions. Much less is known, however...

Metals in soils exert toxic effects on soil quality and human health. In order to carry out metal contamination assessment and human health risk assessment of agricultural soils, a total of 662 cultivated soil samples were collected from two industrially oriented towns and three agriculturally oriented towns of Shifang City, Southwest China. Variou...

Vis-NIR and XRF spectroscopy are widely used in monitoring heavy metals in soil due to their advantages of being fast, non-destructive, cost-effective, and non-polluting. However, when used individually, XRF and vis-NIR may not meet the accuracy requirements for Cd determination. In this study, we focused on the impact area of a non-ferrous metal s...

Exposure to heavy metal(loid)s (HM) through contaminated food chains poses significant health risks to humans. While soil amendments are known to reduce HM bioavailability, their effects on bioaccessibility and health risks in soil-pakchoi-human systems remain unclear. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a greenhouse pot experiment coupling...

With ongoing climate change, aridity is increasing worldwide, affecting biodiversity and ecosystem function in drylands. However, how the depth-profile microbial community structure and metabolic limitations change along aridity gradients are still poorly explored. Here, 16S rRNA and ITS amplicon sequencing and ecoenzymatic stoichiometry analysis w...

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in cultivated lands pose serious threats to the environment and human health. Therefore, improving the understanding of their distinct sources and environmental risks by integrating various methods is necessary. This study investigated the distribution, sources, and environmental risks of eight PTEs in cultivated s...

Microplastics (MPs) and cadmium (Cd) are widely distributed in soil ecosystems, posing a potential threat to agricultural production and human health. However, the coupled effects of MPs and Cd in soil-plant systems remain largely unknown, especially on a large scale. In this study, a meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the influence of MPs on...

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in the dustfall-soil-crop system pose a serious threat to the ecological environment and agricultural production. However, there is still a knowledge gap in terms of better understanding the distinctive sources of PTEs by integrating various models and technologies. In this study, we comprehensively investigated th...

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) pollution causes a great threat to microbial metabolism, which plays a vital role in studying soil nutrient cycling and predicting carbon (C) storage in agroecosystems. However, the responses of microbial metabolism characteristic to heavy metal contamination and the mechanisms through which microbial metabolism me...

As a type of emerging pollutant, microplastics exist widely in soil and continue to migrate and transform. Recently, the potential threats of microplastics to soil health and ecological environment have attracted extensive concern. Here, this review discussed the various sources and distribution, and then highlighted the migration, transformation,...

The coexistence of microplastics (MPs) and toxic metal contaminants in soils is becoming increasingly common, thereby posing serious threat to soil–plant systems. Cadmium (Cd) is the most common metal contaminant in soil and can easily combine with MPs, thereby altering its bioavailability. However, few studies have focused on the co-pollution of M...

In this study, Chinese yam (Dioscorea opposita Thunb.) flour was irradiated at doses of 1.79, 6.06, 10.07 and 14.97 kGy of the electron beam, to analyze the effects of electron beam irradiated (EBI) on the solubility, transmittance, swelling, paste properties, and the microstructure of starch in yam flour. Results showed that EBI degraded the starc...

Microplastics (MPs) pollution is becoming a serious environmental issue of global concern. Currently, the effects of MPs on aquatic ecosystems have been studied in detail and in depth from species to communities. However, soils, the largest reservoir of MPs, have been less studied, and little is known about the occurrence, environmental fate and ec...

Increasing uranium (U) content in soils due to anthropogenic U contamination causes accumulation of U in plants, which greatly increases human health risks. This review identified the diverse sources of soil U contamination and their significant spatial variations in surface soils globally based on 789 soil sampling sites collected from 76 studies....

Purpose Zaozigou gold mine is located in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and it is one of the largest gold (Au) mines in China. Agricultural soil pollution of toxic trace elements (TTEs) in Au mining area has become an increasingly common issue and potentially harms the environment and human health. In this paper, 78 samples were collected from a typica...

Heavy metal (HM) pollution of soils is a globally important ecological and environmental problem. Previous studies have focused on i) tracking pollution sources in HM-contaminated soils, ii) exploring the adsorption capacity and distribution of HMs, and iii) assessing phyto-uptake of HMs and their ecotoxicity. However, few reviews have systematical...

Tulip, being an important ornamental plant, generally requires lengthy and laborious procedures to develop new varieties using traditional breeding methods requires. But ionizing radiation potentially accelerates the breeding process of ornamental plant species. The biological effects of γ-ray irradiation on tulip, therefore, were investigated thro...

Since toxic element pollution is widespread in soils near gold mines due to increasing mining activities, the adverse effects of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in the soils on ecological systems and human health cannot be ignored. However, assessments of PTE pollution in soils and their ecological-health risks on a national scale are still limit...

Total levels of nine toxic elements in soils near U mines are reviewed by a global meta-analysis. • Nearly 57.5% of soil samples near U mines were heavily polluted with Cd. • Non-cancer risks of U and As were high, while Cu presents the unacceptable cancer risks. • The environmental and health risks posed by Cd, U, As, and Cu merit more attention....

Soil contamination with potentially toxic elements (PTEs) is an increasing environmental problem, posing serious threats to the living organisms. Phytoremediation is a sustainable and highly accepted technology for remediation of PTE-contaminated soils. Alfalfa has been widely adopted for the phytoremediation of PTE-contaminated soils due to its la...

Microplastics (MPs) pollution is becoming a serious environmental issue of global concern. Currently, the effects of MPs on aquatic ecosystems have been studied in detail and in depth from species to communities. However, soils, the largest reservoir of MPs, have been less studied, and little is known about the occurrence, environmental fate and ec...

Microplastics (MPs) pollution is becoming a serious environmental issue of global concern. Currently, the effects of MPs on aquatic ecosystems have been studied in detail and in depth from species to communities. However, soils, the largest reservoir of MPs, have been less studied, and little is known about the occurrence, environmental fate and ec...

Soil pollution by potentially toxic trace elements (PTEs) near uranium (U) mines arouses a growing interest worldwide. However, nearly all studies have focused on a single site or only a few sites, which may not fully represent the soil pollution status at the global scale. In this study, data of U, Cd, Cr, Pb, Cu, Zn, As, Mn, and Ni contents in U...

Microplastics (MPs) are creating an emerging threat on the soil ecosystems and are of great global concern. However, the distribution in soil-plant system, as well as the phytotoxicity and impact mechanisms of MPs remain largely unexplored so far. This study introduced the diverse sources of MPs and showed the significant spatial variation in the g...

Uranium(U), a highly toxic radionuclide, is becoming a great threat to soil health development, as returning nuclear waste containing U into the soil systems is increased. Numerous studies have focused on: i) tracing the source in U contaminated soils; ii) exploring U geochemistry; and iii) assessing U phyto-uptake and its toxicity to plants. Yet,...

Due to the considerable calcium carbonate content, eggshell can serve as an effective, cheap, and efficient adsorbent in treating contaminated water. The removal of bismuth (Bi) ion by 0.45 µm pulverized chicken eggshells was investigated and the effects of various factors including contact time, initial pH, adsorbent dosage, initial Bi ion concent...

Electron beam to target turning X-ray (EBTTX) is an emerging irradiation technology that can potentially accelerate the breeding process of plants. The biological effects of EBTTX irradiation on the two freesia cultivars (the red freesia and the purple freesia) were investigated by establishing an irradiation-mediated mutation breeding protocol. Th...

Vanadium(V) is an important component of industrial activities, while it may pose toxic hazards to plants, animals, and humans at high levels. Owing to its various uses in numerous industrial processes, high amount of V is released into the soil environment. Previous literature has focused on the biogeochemistry and ecotoxicity of V in soil-plant s...

Vanadium (V) has been progressively studied due to its potential toxicity in the environment as a trace metal. A coexistence system of humic acid (HA) and silica was employed to simulate the main organic and inorganic components of soil. The adsorption and desorption characteristics of V by the system and the effects of several environmental condit...

Plant growth regulators (PGRs) are widely used in agricultural activities and have the potential to improve plant growth and plant tolerance against metal stress. PGR-assisted phytoextraction is now an effective and inexpensive method for enhancing the plant removal of toxic metals from soil. In this study, we conducted experiments to determine the...

Purpose Combining biodegradable chelating agents with phytoextraction is an efficient technique to amend metal-contaminated soils, but most studies have addressed remediation efficiency rather than a comprehensive understanding of the interactions among plant stress, metal accumulation, and metal bioavailability. This study aimed to investigate the...

Applying biodegradable chelating agents to assist in phytoremediation is a promising method to increase the remove efficiency of metal pollutants from contaminated soils. The effects of biodegradable chelating agents on improving the phytoremediation capacity in uranium (U) and cadmium (Cd) contaminated soil was investigated using sunflowers, which...

Screening pollution-safe cultivars has become one of the most direct and cost-effective methods for reducing metals entering the food chain. The aims of this study were to screen low Cd and Pb hot pepper cultivars and clarify the mechanisms of low Cd and Pb accumulation in fruits. In this study, we found that fruit Cd and Pb concentrations were sig...

Vanadium (V) is a widely distributed and potentially dangerous pollutant in soils. However, the extraction methods for bioavailability of V in soils have not been unified. This study focused on the assessment of BCR sequential and single extraction (8 extractants) methods to predict potential bioavailability of V in the tailing and soils. The total...

This study investigated the effect of ethylenediamine-N,N′-disuccinic acid (EDDS), oxalic acid (OA), and citric acid (CA) on phytoextraction of U- and Cd-contaminated soil by Z. pendula. In this study, the biomass of tested plant inhibited significantly following treatment with the high concentration (7.5 mmol·kg−1) EDDS treatment. Maximum U and Cd...

Understanding the interactions between humic acid colloid (HAC) and vanadium (V) in soils is of great importance in forecasting the behaviors and fates of V in the soil and groundwater systems. This study investigated the characteristics and factors that affect V adsorption-desorption by the HAC; meanwhile, we also explored the co-transport of the...

This investigation was made to examine the role of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), gibberellin A3 (GA3), 6-Benzylaminopurine (6-BA), and 24-epibrassinolide (EBL) in improving stress tolerance and phytoremediation of the cadmium (Cd) and uranium (U) by mustard (Brassica juncea L.). The optimum concentrations of IAA, GA3, 6-BA, and EBL were determined ba...

In this study, we investigated the effect of EDDS, NTA, CA, and OA on the phytoextraction of cobalt-contaminated soil by Astragalus sinicus L. The optimum concentrations of the chelators were determined for biomass, uptake, translocation, and accumulation. A low concentration (2.5 mmol/kg) of EDDS promoted growth, whereas a high concentration (7.5...