Trace element accumulation in plants from an aridic area affected by mining activities

Abstract

Trace element contamination has been a serious problem in the vicinity of abandoned mine sites. In the studied area, mining activities have produced great amounts of wastes, characterized by high trace elements content, acidic pH and minerals from supergene alteration. Trace elements have been dispersed, both downstream and downslope from the mine mainly due, mainly, to surface runoff. Trace elements hydric mobilization usually takes place during the rainy season, an important pollution route in the studied area. A wide range of techniques have been proposed to remediate soils polluted by trace elements. Among them, phytoremediation-based technologies could provide a long-lasting solution. The aim of this work was to determine trace element concentration in roots and leaves of five plant species (Limonium carthaginens, Arthrocnemum macrostachyum, Dittrichia viscosa, Glaucium flavum and Zygophyllum fabago) growing in soils polluted by mining activities in order to determine which part of the plants accumulate heavy metals to the greatest extent. The metal concentrations in plants varied with plant species. Plant accumulation results showed that Z. fabago could act as an accumulator for Fe, and A. macrostachyum could accumulate in Fe, As and Mn. The other plant species collected from the mining sites were tolerant to trace element contamination.

Copper accumulation and changes in soil physical–chemical properties promoted by native plants in ​​an abandoned mine site in northeastern Brazil: Implications for restoration of mine sites

“…The practice may lead to unfavourable conditions for plant growth, affecting the diversity and abundance of many species and hindering the reestablishment and development of natural vegetation and, therefore, regeneration of the whole ecosystem (Bradshaw, 1997;Adriano, 2001;Bell, 2001;Hernández and Pastor, 2008;Närhi et al, 2012). Depending on the geochemical composition of the mine waste, its disposal can have various different effects on soil quality: decreased nutrient contents (Schulz and Wiegleb, 2000;Nikolic et al, 2010); deteriorated physical quality (Shrestha and Lal, 2011); abrupt changes in pH (acidification or alkalinization) (Jurjovec et al, 2002;Aykol et al, 2003); and release of large amounts of toxic elements (Leblanc et al, 2000;Wu et al, 2011;Zornoza et al, 2012;Martínez-Sanchez et al, 2012;García-Lorenzo et al, 2012).…”

Chelant-Assisted Accumulation of Cd, Cu, and Zn in Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) Biomass as a Renewable Energy Feedstock

“…Plants displaying BCF value more than unity are considered suitable for phytoremediation [32]. According to the results obtained during this research, B. napus cannot be counted as a hyperaccumulator due to rather low BCF values.…”

“…Rapeseed displayed high TF values for Cd and Zn, showing intensive transport of these metals from roots to the aboveground biomass as a green light for the phytoextraction application, but rather low BCF values revealed that rapeseed is not suitable enough for this purpose. On the other hand, plants tolerant of metalcontaminated soil and maintaining rather low total concentrations in the aboveground parts can be considered as excluders and used as a tool for erosion reduction and decrease metal leaching to groundwater in contaminated areas [32,39].…”

Reduction of Toxic Element Mobility in Mining Soil by Zeolitic Amendments

“…The plant response to heavy metals in soil depends on the plant species, the total soil metal concentration, and the bioavailability of the metal (Martinez-Sanchez et al, 2012). For example, excluders have an avoidance (or restriction) mechanism which prevents element uptake, while accumulators have mechanisms of metal accumulation in their aboveground biomass (Perez-Sirvent et al, 2008).…”

“…BCF in that plant was found lower than 1 (almost by two factors) for all the studied elements (Table 4). According to Martinez-Sanchez et al (2012) Glaucium flavum is considered as a hypertolerant plant. Our findings suggest that Glaucium flavum does not accumulate high concentrations of metals and may inherit an avoidance/restriction mechanism that not only prevents all the studied toxic elements uptake but tolerates the low soil pH of the acid mine soil.…”