Revisión del origen de la contaminación de suelos con cadmio, sus estrategias de remoción y el caso de cultivos de cacao en el Ecuador.

Abstract

Cadmium is an inorganic, non-elemental heavy metal widely distributed in nature that can affect the quality of agricultural products due to its bioaccumulation potential. In cocoa beans, the basic raw material in chocolate production, cadmium can occur due to uptake by the cocoa tree of this heavy metal. Several researchers have focused their attention on the concentration of cadmium in soils of cocoa crops since this value has a relation with the concentration of this heavy metal in the beans. Many soil treatments for the removal of cadmium from soils were tested over time. Techniques of physical, chemical and biological remediations of soils containing cadmium were tested and also some combinations of these remediation strategies were evaluated. All remediation strategies that can be applied to soils can affect the content of micronutrients, and this is an important issue that must be addressed. Therefore, a revision of available literature concerning the occurrence of cadmium in soils of cocoa crops, remediation of soils containing cadmium and the implications of treatments for cadmium removal is presented. The revised information is discussed and trends, as well as perspectives for future research works, are proposed.