Ecological Engineering 138 (2019) 237–247

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Ecological Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoleng

Effects of super absorbent polymer on scouring resistance and water T

retention performance of soil for growing plants in ecological concrete
⁎ ⁎
Laibo Lia, Haiming Zhangb, Xiangming Zhouc, Mingxu Chena, Lingchao Lua, , Xin Chenga,
a
School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Jinan, Jinan 250022, China
b
Department of Asset Management, Qilu University of Technology, Jinan 250353, China
c
Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, Brunel University, London, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, United Kingdom

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Ecological concrete could protect the slopes along a motorway or on a river bank and prevent water/soil loss and
Scouring resistance beautify and built the environment compared to ordinary concrete. Overlaying soil, as a key component of
Water retention property ecological concrete, plays an important role in greening rate of ecological concrete. However, natural soil used as
Super absorbent polymer overlaying soil cannot meet plants growing demand due to its unsatisfying scouring resistance and water re-
Soil
tention properties. In this paper natural super absorbent polymer (SAP) was utilized to modify the natural soil for
Ecological concrete
the preparation of a material with enhanced scouring resistance and water retention performance which are
indispensable for growing plants in ecological concrete. Experimental results suggested that 1.5 wt% SAP con-
tent in the soil was the most suitable option. At this natural soil replacement level, the scouring resistance
increased by 68.9% while its water retention performance improved by 11.1% at the age of 160 h. In addition,
other performance improvements of the soil were determined including increasing of the water absorption rate
which was tested increasing by up to 69.4% and the cone index of up to 0.39 MPa, and the advancements of
perennial ryegrass were measured increasing of the survival ratio which was found increasing by up to 97.9%
and the dry weight of up to 2.16 kg/m2.

1. Introduction
Pervious concrete is a kind of environmental-friendly material, de-
veloped by coating moderate amount of cement paste on the surface of
coarse aggregates to achieve a structure with high porosity (Bhutta
et al., 2013; Tamai et al., 2004). Because of the favorable water-
draining, -permeating, and -retaining performance of the pervious
concrete, it has been widely applied in sidewalks, parks and road pa-
vements et al., as well as for pervious gutters and plants bedding (Park
and Tia, 2004; Ćosić et al., 2015; Kim and Lee, 2010; Agar-Ozbek et al.,
2013). Pervious concrete used for planting bedding is appropriately
named as ‘ecological concrete’ (Fig. 1), which is mainly utilized to
protect the slopes along a motorway or on a river bank (Gong et al.,
2017; Li et al., 2017a). Although normal concrete (Ordinary Portland
Cement Concrete) has been widely used as a covering layer for slope
protection, the environment underneath is too dense for plant growth
because the low porosity of concrete greatly limits the transportation
among water, soil, air and plants. This problem can be well resolved by
using ecological concrete as a covering layer since the plants’ roots can
pass through the ecological concrete via interconnected pore and
absorb the water and nutrition from underground (Fig. 1(b)). Hence,
ecological concrete has been considered as a cost-effectively and en-
vironmental friendly candidate for the aim of growing plants, pro-
tecting soil and water (Yan et al., 2013; Li et al., 2018). In general,
ecological concrete system consists of three components, including
herbaceous plants, overlaying soil and porous concrete (Fig. 1(a)) (Li
et al., 2017a). Currently, the major concern for growing herbaceous
plants in the ecological concrete is how to improve the scouring re-
sistance and water retention of overlaying soil which determines the
fate of herbaceous plants and greening rate of ecological concrete
(Fig. 1(c)). The improvement of scouring resistance can be achieved
using solidified agent (Cao et al., 2017; Li et al., 2001; Rajasekaran,
2005), which could be divided into two main types: Portland cements
(PC) and sulphoaluminate cement (SAPs). On the one hand, cement has
been widely used for solidifying soil because it can produce a me-
chanically stable form by the hydration and hardening of the cement
(Rajasekaran, 2005; Stanforth, 2001). In most cases, PC was adopted as
the solidified agent to solidify the soil. However, the pore fluid alkali-
nity (pH) of the hardened PC paste can reach up to 13.5 due to the
formation of cement hydration products (Zhang and Yan, 2017; Codina

⁎
Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: Lingchao_lu@163.com (L. Lu), Chengxin_ujn@outlook.com (X. Cheng).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2019.07.030
Received 22 February 2019; Received in revised form 10 June 2019; Accepted 25 July 2019
Available online 03 August 2019
0925-8574/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
L. Li, et al.
Fig. 1. (a) Sketch map of ecological concrete; (b) Actual-effect pictures of ecological concrete; (c) Actual-effect pictures of ecological concrete greening rate.
et al., 2008), calcium silicate (CeSeH; C]CaO, S]SiO2, H]H2O) gel
and calcium hydroxide (CH), and such a high PH value is not beneficial
for the growth of plants. Compared with PC, SAC has a relatively lower
alkalinity with the PH value of 11.4 because of the formation of AFt
(C3A·3C$·H32; A = Al2O3, $ = SO3) and AFm (C3A·C$·H12) (Li et al.,
2017b), so the utilization of SAC as the solidified agent, instead of PC,
can provide a more suitable environment for plant growing. Moreover,
the manufacture of SAC clinker also has the many advantages, such as
lower formation temperature (~1250 °C), lower carbon dioxide emis-
sions and easier grinding with less lower energy consumption (Zhang
et al., 2014; Lu et al., 2014; Chen et al., 2016; García-Maté and Torre,
2013; Marie et al., 2012; Lu et al., 2016). On the other hand, SAPs are
capable of absorbing a large amount of water from the surroundings
and retaining the water within their structure chains (Jensen and
Hansen, 2001). A previous study suggested that SAPs can stabilize the
soil structure and enhance the soil water holding capacity, and finally
reduce the soil and water erosion in furrow-irrigated fields (Eneji et al.,
2013). In addition, SAPs can also effectively reduce shrinkage (Luo
et al., 2017), control crack potential (Snoeck et al., 2012), and regulate
the rheology of the fresh concrete (Mechtcherine et al., 2014; Shen
et al., 2016). Therefore, the addition of SAPs is beneficial to improving
the water retention of overlaying soil, but the dosage should be care-
fully controlled since excessive amount of SAPs can cause harden of soil
(Pramthawee et al., 2017) and is not good for plant growth.
The objective of this paper was to improve the scouring resistance
and water retention performance of ecological concrete overlaying soil
with satisfied degree of soil hardening. The solidified agents (SAC &
SAP) were added into natural soil as partial replacement of soil to
prepare an ecological concrete overlaying soil with enhanced scouring
resistance and water retention performance. Then, the adaptability
between overlaying soil and plants was studied by characterizing the
germination ratio, survival ration, and dry weight of plants. Finally,
basic physicochemical properties, such as water absorption ratio,
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Ecological Engineering 138 (2019) 237–247
alkalinity (pH) and hardening degree, and mechanical performance of
ecological concrete overlaying soil were comprehensively investigated.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
Natural soil was from a cornfield, which is located in Duanzhuang
Village, Changqing County, Shandong Province (36°537 N, 116°699 E).
The physicochemical properties of the natural soil are presented in
Table 1. SAC (Grade for 42.5 R, manufactured in Qufu Zhonglian Co.,
Ltd, China) was utilized in this study due to its lower alkalinity. SAP
(manufactured in Hebei Yanxing Chemcal Co., Ltd, China) was used as
soil improvement agent due to its high water absorption and retention
properties. The water absorptions of the SAP were 72 g water per gram
of it in deionized water and 57 g water per gram of it in NaCl solution
with concentration of 3% and pH of 8.2, and the water absorption was
determined by the teabag method (Jensen and Hansen, 2002). In ad-
dition, vermiculite was often used in agriculture due to its desirable
water retention capacity and loose layered structure (Dzene et al.,
2017; Drelich et al., 2011). So vermiculite was adopted as the soil
amendment by a fixed amount of 15.0 wt%. The vermiculite was
sourced from Wangda Minerals Factory, Lingshou County, Hebei
Table 1
Physicochemical properties of the natural soil.
Properties Natural soil
Scouring resistance of soil (L/g) 4.25
Water absorption rate (wt%) 50.5
pH 7.54
Cone index (MPa) 0.23
Bilk density (g/cm3) 1.87
Equilibrium moisture content (wt%) 4.2
L. Li, et al. Ecological Engineering 138 (2019) 237–247

Table 2 Table 3
Chemical compositions. Physical properties of recycled aggregate.
Component Amount (% by mass) Properties Recycled aggregate

Natural soil SAC Vermiculite Gradation (mm) 20–25

Crush index (%) 18.3
SiO2 65.74 9.60 41.00 Density (kg/m3) 2590
CaO 3.38 45.16 1.82 Water absorption (%) 5.6
Al2O3 17.05 21.64 15.10 Unit weight (kg/m3) 1320
Fe2O3 – 2.45 16.14 Absolute volume (%) 51.6
MgO 2.26 1.28 12.53
K2O 3.02 1.38 5.14
Na2O 1.46 0.17 0.48
added in the ecological concrete mixing as retarder and superplasticizer
TiO2 0.83 1.03 1.91
SO3 0.31 10.73 0.08 admixtures, respectively. Moreover, three alkali-resistance plants (i.e.
Ignition loss 4.51 6.35 3.20 cynodon dactylon, festuca elata and perennial ryegrass) were used to
measure the adaptability between overlaying soil and plants.

2.2. Experimental design

A control specimen of natural soil with vermiculite was marked as

NSV ref. SAC was utilized to partially replace natural soil at the dosages
of 1.0%, 2.0%, 3.0% and 4.0% by weight and marked as NSVC 1.0,
NSVC 2.0, NSVC 3.0 and NSVC 4.0, and SAP was adopted to partially
replace natural soil at the contents of 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% by
weight and marked as NSVP 0.5, NSVP 1.0, NSVP 1.5 and NSVP 2.0,
respectively. The mix proportions are shown in Table 4.

2.3. Test methods

2.3.1. Basic properties

Fig. 2. FT-IR analysis of SAP.
Province, China, and which was calcined at 850 °C. The chemical
compositions of natural soil, SAC and vermiculite were analyzed by an
X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF, Tiger S8, Germany), and the
data are shown in Table 2. FT-IR spectrometer (Nicolet 380, USA) was
employed to determine the functional groups of SAP, and the data are
presented in Fig. 2. Furthermore, crushed waste demolition concrete
was adopted as the coarse aggregates to produce the ecological con-
crete. The crushing of the waste demolition concrete was carried out in
the laboratory, and the crushing process is shown in Fig. 3, and the
basic properties of recycled aggregates are shown in Table 3. Boric acid
(with a purity of 99.0 wt%, manufactured in Sinopharm Chemical Re-
agent Co., Ltd, China) along with polycarboxylate polymer (manu-
factured in Shandong Academy of Building Research, China) were
The scouring resistance of soil (SRS) was measured in accordance
with (Zhou et al., 2010), for which the test set-up is presented in Fig. 4.
Specimens were wetted from bottom for 12 h, in order to prevent air
entrapment. After that, specimens were placed in the above of a layer of
sand and allowed to drain for 8 h. The specimens were then each putted
into ‘Samples chamber’ and exposed to a flow rate of 4 L/min on a slope
of 25°over a period of 10 min in the ‘Scouring flume’. In this study, all
outflows were collected for each measurement. After the suspended
sample particles had settled, the clear water was drained off and the
sediments were dried at 105 °C. The SRS was determined according to
the Eq. (1).
f×t
AS =
W (1)
where AS is the SRS (L/g), f is the water flow rate (L/min), t is the
scouring time (min), W is the weight of the oven-dried sediment (g).
The equation indicated higher AS values of samples represent higher
resistance to scouring of it.
The soil compaction was presented by the soil resistance through
cone index (CI, MPa). The cone index was defined as penetration

Fig. 3. The lab-based preparation process of recycled aggregates.

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L. Li, et al. Ecological Engineering 138 (2019) 237–247

Table 4
Mix proportions (wt%).
No. Natural soil Vermiculite SAC SAP

NSV ref 85.0 15.0 – –

NSVC 1.0 84.0 1.0 –
NSVC 2.0 83.0 2.0 –
NSVC 3.0 82.0 3.0 –
NSVC 4.0 81.0 4.0 –
NSVP 0.5 84.5 – 0.5
NSVP 1.0 84.0 – 1.0
NSVP 1.5 83.5 – 1.5
NSVP 2.0 83.0 – 2.0

resistance (PR, N) divided by cone cross-sectional area (CCSA, mm2)

according to the ASABE Standards (ASABE Standards EP542, 2009; Lin
et al., 2014). To evaluate the cone index of samples, a handheld cone
penetrometer (OK-JS1, China) was fixed on a press, as shown in Fig. 5.
Soil specimens with moisture content of 30% were packed into the
samples cylinders and compacted by a cylindrical ironwork (diameter:
200 mm) at 5 kg. The maximum vertical movement was designed at
500 mm. In addition, the penetration velocity was set at 30 mm/s by the
press to meet the ASABE Standards (ASABE Standards EP542, 2009).
Each resultant value of cone index was an average calculated from three
determinations.
The ex-situ leaching method (Li et al., 2005) was used to extract the
liquid to test the alkalinity (pH) of samples. After that, a laboratory
grade pH meter (pHs-3E, China) was employed to measure the pH of
samples. Each resultant value of alkalinity was an average calculated
from three determinations. Fig. 5. Sketch map of cone index test (h1, 18.6 mm; h2, 21 mm; h3, 30 mm; θ,
The water absorption and absorbency ratio (WAR) of samples was 30°).
determined according to the teabag method (Jensen and Hansen,
2002). A teabag (pre-wetted in the deionized water, mass m2) con- were put in an environment of 25 ± 2 °C and 35 ± 2%RH. At pro-
taining some 5–10 g of soil particles (exact mass m1) was soaked in a grammed times (i.e. 1 h, 2 h, …, 10 h, 12 h, 15 h, 20 h, 25 h, 30 h, 40 h,
container filled with the deionized water. After 3 h, the teabag with the …, 100 h, 120 h, 140 h and 160 h), the specimens were accurately
soil was removed from the water and weighed (mass m3). The WAR of weighed again and the test results were marked as m5. The water re-
the soil was determined by the Eq. (2). lease rate (WRR) of a specimen was obtained by Eq. (3).
m3 − m2 − m1 (m4 − m5) × (1 + WAR)
WAR = × 100% WRR = × 100%
m1 (2) (m4 − m 0) × WAR (3)

The specimens after water absorption measurement were trans-

ferred into a certain weight (m0) of glass dishes (φ 100 × 30 mm), re- 2.3.2. Adaptability
moved air bubbles by vibration, and then wiped the surface flat with In order to investigate the adaptability between ecological concrete
the scraper. After which specimens (samples and glass dish, as follows) overlaying soil and plants, the experiment of plants growth in ecolo-
were accurately weighted and marked as m4. The wiped specimens gical concrete was designed. Firstly, an outdoor land (9 × 9 m2) was

Fig. 4. Set-up for SRS test.

240
L. Li, et al.
Fig. 6. Actual-effect pictures of adaptability investigation; a) Leveling land; b) Ecological concrete preparation and paving; c) Covering soil with seeds; d) Watering
and Covering adumbral netting; e) Sowing seeds for 7 days; f) Sowing seeds for 60 days.
Table 5
Mix proportion and basic physical properties of ecological concrete.
Mix proportion (kg/m3) SAC
Recycle aggregate
Boric acid
Polycarboxylate polymer
Water
Physical properties Void Ratio (%)
Permeation coefficient (cm/s)
Compressive strength (MPa)
leveled (Fig. 6a) and then the ecological concrete with a void ratio of
35% was prepared according to (Li et al., 2018) and paved on the land
(Fig. 6b), and the mix proportion and basic physical properties of
ecological concrete is shown in Table 5. Secondly, after 24 h later, the
overlaying soil with a certain amount (N0) of grass seeds was covered
on the concrete, and the ply of the soil was controlled in about 3 cm
(Fig. 6c). Finally, an appropriate amount of water was sprayed (after
which, the water was sprayed once every two weeks), and an adumbral
netting was adopted (Fig. 6d). After 7 days later, the adumbral netting
was removed, and the amount of plants was determined and record as
N1 (Fig. 6e). When the time of sowing seeds for 60 days, the amount of
plants was determined again and record as N2 (Fig. 6f). After which,
plants were cut down and put in an drying oven of 105 ± 2 °C for 24 h,
and then the dry weight of plants was tested. The equations employed
to obtain germination ratio (GR) and survival ratio (SR) a sample was as
follows:
N1
GR = × 100%
N0
N2
SR = × 100%
N1
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Basic properties
The test results of scouring resistance the soil are presented in
Fig. 7a. The scouring resistance of soil (SRS) increased with the in-
creasing of SAC addition. When the dosage of SAC reached up to 4 wt%
(i.e. sample NSVP 4.0), the SRS increased by 28.7% to a value of 6.91 L/
g compared with sample NSV ref. Therefore, SAC could improve the SRS
of the soil effectively. This possibly because a mechanically stable form
could be built by the hydration and hardening of SAC. Furthermore, the
SRS of samples were significantly increase by the addition of SAP, and
the SRS of sample NSVP 2.0 increased 74.3% to a value of 9.36 L/g
Ecological Engineering 138 (2019) 237–247
compared with sample NSV ref. A possible reason was that SAP could
stabilize the soil structure due to its hydrophilic networks. Wang et al.
220
(Wang et al., 2019) also utilized a flume scouring experiment to study
1320 the effect of the sediment content on the SRS of natural soil. The ex-
0.87 perimental results presented that the SRS of soil decreased with the
2.39 increasing of sediment content. In this paper, the fine soil particles
55
could be bonded by SAC and SAP to form particles that resemble se-
35.0 diment. In addition, the study of Cao et al on SAP modified soil sug-
2.95
gested that the initial runoff time of natural soil increased with the
8.4
increasing of SAP content (Cao et al., 2017). Hence, SAC and SAP were
suitable to enhance the SRS of ecological concrete overlaying soil.
The measurement results of cone index (Fig. 7b) representing the
compaction of the soil. Soil compaction is a key issue for plants growth
(Chen and Weil, 2011). Moderate compaction may improve the grass
seed germination rate and prevent water runoff, otherwise excessive
compaction leads to higher soil strength and cannot supply adequate
spaces for plants roots (Tolon-Becerra et al., 2011; Modolo et al., 2011).
The cone index of sample NSV ref was only 0.31 MPa. With a replace-
ment of 1.0% SAC, the cone index reached up to 0.42 MPa, an in-
creasing of 35.5% compared to that of sample NSV ref. Furthermore,
with the content of SAC at 4.0 wt%, the cone index increased by 261.3%
to a value of 1.12 MPa compared to that of sample NSV ref. Therefore it
is obviously that the cone index increased significantly with the in-
crease of SAC content. On the other hand, in cases of a SAP addition of
no more than 1.5 wt%, the cone index increased slowly with the in-
crease of SAP content; the difference was no more than 45.2%. For
instance, the cone index of sample NSVP 0.5 was 0.33 MPa, an increase
of only 6.5% compared with the reference. Yet, when the addition of
SAP reached up to 2.0 wt%, the cone index increased to 0.76 MPa, an
(4) increasing of 145.2% compared with that of sample NSV ref. The work
by Chung et al. on the strength and cone index of soil (Chung et al.,
2013) provided that the cone index of soil was linear as a function of
(5)
unit weight of soil, cohesion, adhesion. Therefore, the increasing of
cone index represented the increase of cohesion and adhesion of the
soil, which is also consistent with the SRS test results (Fig. 7a).
Fig. 7c shows the data of alkalinity measurement. It clearly de-
monstrates that increasing the SAC content leads to increase of pH of
the soil. Compared to the sample NSV ref (pH = 7.47), the pH of spe-
cimens increases by 4.0% (pH = 7.77), 11.2% (pH = 8.31), 23.6%
(pH = 9.23) and 26.8% (pH = 9.47) with increasing SAC content from
1.0 wt%, 2.0 wt%, 3.0 wt% and 4.0 wt%, respectively. The phenomenon
could be attributed to that some alkaline substances (e.g. potassium
hydroxide, sodium hydroxide et al.) could be produced by the hydra-
tion of SAC. Fortunately, application of SAP did not have any sub-
stantial influence on the pH of specimens which was almost equal for all
mixtures; the difference was less than 2.5%. This was mainly due to that
SAP was a hydrophilic networks polymer, and alkaline substances were
241
L. Li, et al.
Fig. 7. Basic properties: a) Scouring resistance of soil; b) Cone index; c) Alkalinity; d) Water absorption rate.
not be produced by it.
Water is necessary for plants growth. Ecological concrete is a porous
concrete with high void ratio and water permeability coefficient. Loss
of water can occur very easily in ecological concrete, which often
causes plants withering and even dying (Jara-Rojas et al., 2013;
Valášková et al., 2009). Hence, it is needful to enhance the water ab-
sorption and retention properties of the overlaying soil of ecological
concrete (Valášková et al., 2009; Tang et al., 2018). Fig. 7d presents the
test results of water absorption rate of soil, and the corresponding ab-
sorbency ratios are shown in Fig. 8. When the dosage of SAC was 2.0 wt
%, comparing with sample NSV ref the water absorption rate increased
only by 1.5% to a value of 55.4 wt%. Evidently, with the increase of
Fig. 8. Water absorbency ratio of soils.
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Ecological Engineering 138 (2019) 237–247
SAC addition, the water absorption rate increased very slowly. This
trend continued with the increase of SAC dosage. So SAC was testified
to be unsuitable to enhance the water absorption of the overlaying soil.
On the other hand, with the dosage of SAP at 0.5 wt%, the water ab-
sorption rate increased 13.6% to a value of 62.1 wt% compared with
the reference. Furthermore, with a content of 2.0 wt% SAP, the water
absorption rate reached up to 76.1 wt%, an increase of 39.4% compared
with that of sample NSV ref. Hence, it is obviously that the water ab-
sorption rate increased with the increase of SAP addition. This is chiefly
because SAP could absorb a large amount of water from the sur-
rounding. Additionally, there was not much effect of SAC content on the
water absorbency ratio of soils. On the contrary, the water absorbency
ratio increased significantly with the increase of SAP dosage, which
means that the soils containing SAP could absorb more water in the
same time. Hence SAP was demonstrated to be efficient to enhance the
water absorption of the soil.
Fig. 9 shows the test data of water release rate of samples, re-
presenting their water retention property. Compared with sample NSV
ref, the water release rate increased with the increasing of SAC addition.
With the addition of 4.0 wt% SAC, the water release rate increased by
7.8% to a value of 75.9 wt% at 160 h. This could be because that the
main hydration products of SAC were AFt and AFm with compact
structure, and the water retention property of AFt and AFm was lower
than that of the soil. So it is evidently that SAC was not benefit to en-
hance the water retention property of the overlaying soil. Compared
with the reference, the water release rate of sample NSVP 0.5 decreased
by 2.8% to 68.4 wt% at 160 h. In addition, with a dosage of 2.0 wt%
SAP, the water release rate reduced to 60.7 wt%, a decrease of 13.8%
compared with that of sample NSV ref at the same time as described
above. So it is obviously that the water release rate reduced with the
increasing of SAP content, which was consistent with the experimental
result of Yang et al. (Yang et al., 2014). This might be due to that SAP
L. Li, et al. Ecological Engineering 138 (2019) 237–247

Fig. 9. Water release rate of soils.

could absorb plenty of water from the surroundings and to save the
water within their structure chain. In addition, the work by Cao et al.
(2017) suggested that the temporal and spatial distribution of moisture
was optimized by SAPs, and utilization SAPs was beneficial to the soil
aggregate structure. Moreover, SAPs were high polymer electrolytes
and adsorb electrically opposite ions and small soil groups, which is an
important reason to enhance the water erosion resistance of the soil and
maintain fertility. Hence SAP was demonstrated to be efficient to ad-
vance the water retention property of ecological concrete overlaying
soil.

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L. Li, et al.
Fig. 10. Germination ratios of the plants.
3.2. Adaptability
Fig. 10 shows the germination ratios of the plants. For sample NSV
ref, the germination ratio of cynodon dactylon, festuca elata and per-
ennial ryegrass were 98.7%, 93.5% and 98.2%. With the addition of
SAC at 2.0 wt%, the germination ratios of cynodon dactylon, festuca
elata and perennial ryegrass decreased by 10.4%, 10.5% and 2.7% to
88.4%, 83.7% and 95.5%. At the same time, with a dosage of 4.0 wt%
SAC, the germination ratios of cynodon dactylon, festuca elata and
perennial ryegrass decreased to 71.9%, 62.8% and 88.7%, decreases of
27.2%, 32.8% and 9.7% compared with that of sample NSV ref. Evi-
dently, with the increase of SAC content, the germination ratio of the
plants decreased. Furthermore, in cases of a SAP dosage of no more
than 1.5 wt%, the germination ratio of the plants reduced slowly with
the increasing of SAP content. For instance, with an addition of 1.5 wt%
SAP, the germination ratio of cynodon dactylon, festuca elata and
perennial ryegrass were 93.7%, 88.6% and 93.4%, the decreases of
5.1%, 5.2% and 4.9% compared with that of sample NSV ref. However,
when the addition of SAP reached up to 2.0 wt%, the germination ratio
of plants as described above decreased by 13.2%, 13.5% and 16.2% to
values of 85.7%, 80.9% and 82.3%. On the contrary, the work by Yang
et al. on the seed germination for slopes eco-engineering modified by
SAPs proved the germination of plant increased with the increasing of
SAP addition (Yang et al., 2014). This might be due to that the SAPs
contents were no more than 0.45% in the study of Yang et al., and the
water absorption and water retention capacity of soil were significantly
improved by SAPs, and the cone index of soil was essentially un-
changed. However, in this paper, 0.5% to 2.0% SAPs was adopted in
order to increase the scouring resistance, water absorption and water
retention of soil, which resulted in the significantly increase of cone
index of soil and limited the germination of plants.
The results of survival ratios of the plants are presented in Fig. 11.
With the increase content of SAC, the survival ratios of the plants de-
creased. When the content of SAC reached up to 4 wt%, the survival
ratios of cynodon dactylon, festuca elata and perennial ryegrass de-
creased by 25.8%, 27.6% and 25.9% to values of 67.9%, 63.1% and
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Ecological Engineering 138 (2019) 237–247
70.7%. Fortunately, in cases of a SAP addition of no more than 1.5 wt%,
the survival ratios of plants enhanced with the improvement of SAP
content. For instance, with an addition of 1.5 wt% SAP, the survival
ratio of cynodon dactylon, festuca elata and perennial ryegrass were
96.3%, 93.2% and 97.9% higher than that of sample NSV ref. The work
by Yang et al. also suggested that the utilization of SAPs was beneficial
for the survival of plants in slopes eco-engineering (Yang et al., 2014).
However, 2.0 wt% SAP could decrease the survival ratios of plants
compared with the sample with 0 wt% SAP, which proves that excessive
SAP is harmful to the survival of the plants. Hence SAP addition should
be no more than 1.5 wt%, which could enhance the survival ratios of
cynodon dactylon, festuca elata and perennial ryegrass.
The dry weights of the plants are presented in Fig. 12, which re-
present the state of plants growth. The dry weight of plants decreased
with the increasing content of SAC. With a content of 4.0 wt% SAC, the
dry weight of cynodon dactylon, festuca elata and perennial ryegrass
decreased by 49.4%, 44.0% and 47.2% compared with that of sample
NSV ref. On the other hand, in cases of a SAP dosage of no more than
1.5 wt%, the dry weight of the plants increased with the increasing of
SAP addition. For instance, the dry weight of perennial ryegrass of
sample NSVP 0.5, sample NSVP 1.0 and sample NSVP 1.5 were
1.69 kg m−2, 1.87 kg m−2 and 2.16 kg m−2 higher than that of the re-
ference. However, 2.0 wt% SAP could decrease the dry weight of plants
compared with sample NSV ref, which proves that excessive SAP con-
tent is harmful to the growth of plants. Hence SAP content should be no
more than 1.5 wt%, which could enhance the adaptability between the
plants and the soil.
4. Conclusions
In the current study, from the basis of multiple perspectives, the
effects of sulphoaluminate cement (SAC) and super absorbent polymer
(SAP) on scouring resistance, water absorption, water retention cone
index and alkalinity properties of the soil, and on adaptability (i.e.
germination ratio, survival ratio and dry weight of plants) between
three alkali-resistance plants (i.e. cynodon dactylon, festuca elata and
L. Li, et al. Ecological Engineering 138 (2019) 237–247

Fig. 11. Survival ratios of the plants.

perennial ryegrass) and the soil were investigated. The investigation
supports the following conclusions:
(1) The scouring resistance of soil (SRS) significantly improved with
the increase of SAC/SAP addition. When the content of SAC was
4 wt%, the SRS reached up to 6.91 L/g, an increase of 28.7%
compared to the sample with 0 wt% SAC. Furthermore, the SRS
increased by 74.3% to a value of 7.41 L/g due to 2.0 wt% SAP.
(2) The utilization of SAP shown to be suitable for the improvement of
the water absorption and water retention property of the soil. With
an addition of 2.0 wt% SAP, the water absorption rate reached up to
76.4 wt%, an increase of 39.4% compared with the reference, and
the water release rate decreased by 13.8% to a value of 60.7 wt%
compared to that of the reference at 160 h.

Fig. 12. Dry weights of the plants.

245
L. Li, et al.
(3) The cone index of the soil improved with the increase of SAC/SAP
addition. With a content of 4.0 wt% SAC, the cone index increased
by 261.3% to a value of 1.12 MPa compared with the reference, and
with a content of 2.0 wt% SAP, the cone index increased to
0.76 MPa, an increase of 145.2% compared to that of the reference.
(4) The alkalinity (pH) of the soil increased with the increasing SAC
content. The alkalinity increased by 11.2% to a value of 8.31 by
2.0 wt% SAC, and this trend continued with the increase of SAC
content. Therefore, SAC was harmful to plants growth due to its
high alkalinity. In other hand, application of SAP did not have any
substantial effect on the alkalinity which was almost equal for all
soils; the difference was less than 2.5%.
(5) In cases of a SAP dosage of less than 1.5 wt%, the germination ratios
of plants decreased slowly with the increasing SAP dosage. In ad-
dition, the survival ratios and dry weights of the plants of SAP
containing soils were for an up to 1.5 wt% soil replacement level
better than the reference sample but higher SAP dosage appeared as
quite unsatisfactory.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgment
This work is supported by the National Key Point Research and
Invention Program of the Thirteenth through the grants of NO.
2016YFC0701000.
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