Assessing of distribution, mobility and bioavailability of exogenous Pb in agricultural soils using isotopic labeling method coupled with BCR approach

Highlights: • Large amounts of exogenous Pb were found to distribute in reducible fractions. • Very few of exogenous Pb were found to distribute in acid-extractable fractions. • More than 60% of exogenous Pb in rhizosphere soils lost after planting. • Isotopic labeling method and SEP enable to explore Pb bioavailability in soil. -- Abstract: The contamination of Pb in agricultural soils is one of the most important ecological problems, which potentially results in serious health risk on human health through food chain. Hence, the fate of exogenous Pb contaminated in agricultural soils is needed to be deeply explored. By spiking soils with the stable enriched isotopes of 206Pb, the contamination of exogenous Pb2+ ions in three agricultural soils sampled from the estuary areas of Jiulong River, China was simulated in the present study, and the distribution, mobility and bioavailability of exogenous Pb in the soils were investigated using the isotopic labeling method coupled with a four-stage BCR (European Community Bureau of Reference) sequential extraction procedure. Results showed that about 60–85% of exogenous Pb was found to distribute in reducible fractions, while the exogenous Pb in acid-extractable fractions was less than 1.0%. After planting, the amounts of exogenous Pb presenting in acid-extractable, reducible and oxidizable fractions in rhizospheric soils decreased by 60–66%, in which partial exogenous Pb was assimilated by plants while most of the metal might transfer downward due to daily watering and applying fertilizer. The results show that the isotopic labeling technique coupled with sequential extraction procedures enables us to explore the distribution, mobility and bioavailability of exogenous Pb contaminated in soils, which may be useful for the further soil remediation