Phytoextraction and Phytostabilization Potential of Cadmium, Chromium and Nickel By Populus alba and Morus alba Species

As a result of human activities, Metal pollution has become one of the most serious environmental problems today. Phytoremediation utilizes plants to uptake contaminants and can potentially be used to remediate metal-contaminated sites. A pot experiment was conducted to compare the phytoextraction and phytostabilization potential of two plant species (Populus alba and Morus alba) for some elements. Thus, Cd (40, 80, and 160 mg/kg), Cr (60, 120, and 240 mg/kg) and Ni (120, 240, and 480 mg/kg) were added to the soil, shoots and roots of studied species. Associated soil samples were collected and analyzed by measurement of total concentration of Cd, Cr and Ni and then bioconcentration factor (BCF) and translocation factor (TF) calculated for each element. Our results show that none of the plants were suitable for phytostabilization of studied elements with root BCF<1 and TF>1. In addition, Populus alba with the shoot BCF>1 for Cd in all studied treatments and Ni in 240 and 480 mg/kg treatments were suitable for phytoextraction while Morus alba was suitable for phytoextraction of Ni with the shoot BCF>1 in all studied treatments.Keywords: Bioconcentration, Phytoextraction, Phytoremediation, Phytostabilization, TranslocationAbstractAs a result of human activities, Metal pollution has become one of the most serious environmental problems today. Phytoremediation utilizes plants to uptake contaminants and can potentially be used to remediate metal-contaminated sites. A pot experiment was conducted to compare the phytoextraction and phytostabilization potential of two plant species (Populus alba and Morus alba) for some elements. For this purpose, Cd (40, 80, and 160 mg/kg), Cr (60, 120, and 240 mg/kg) and Ni (120, 240, and 480 mg/kg) were added to the soil and shoots and roots of studied species and associated soil samples were collected and analyzed by measurement of total concentration of Cd,Cr and Ni and then bioconcentration factor (BCF) and translocation factor (TF) parameters calculated for each element. Our results show that none of the plants were suitable for phytostabilization of all elements with root BCF<1 and TF>1. In addition, Populus alba with the shoot BCF>1 for Cd in all studied treatments and Ni in 240 and 480 mg/kg treatments were suitable for phytoextraction of these elements while Morus alba was suitable for phytoextraction of Ni with the shoot BCF>1 in all studied treatments.