Geochemical differentiation of soils has a series of consequences on plant and places pressure on the ecological environment. The quantitative evaluation of element migration in the Earth’s critical zone is a challenging task. In this study, two demonstration study areas of
Scutellaria baicalensis
Georgi were selected, and multiple chemical weathering indexes, chemical loss fraction, mass migration coefficients and biological enrichment coefficient method were used to assess the ecological and geochemical suitability. The results show that for the element of Fe, Zn, Se, Cu, Co, Ni, Mo and Ge, the degree of weathering and soil maturation, were greater in the rhyolitic tuff area than in the Plagioclase gneiss area. In both research sites, the heavy metal level of samples in
Scutellaria baicalensis
Georgi did not exceed the standard limits. The plagioclase gneiss region’s surface soil environment was more alkaline, and the content of soil organic matter was lower, resulting in a higher bioenrichment intensity of Ge, Co, Cu, and Se elements in
Scutellaria baicalensis
Georgi than in the rhyolite-tuff area. The elements of Cd, Nb, Mo, Pb and As are considerably enriched in the soil of the plagioclase gneiss area but lost by leaching in the soil of the rhyolite tuff area, which is connected to the interplay of elemental abundance and human impact in the parent materials. This study provides a good example of how to assess growth suitability of Chinese medicinal materials in the Earth’s critical zone.
Electronic supplementary material
Supplementary material (Appendix 1) is available in the online version of this article at 10.1007/s11629-021-7015-9.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.