Potential of rangeland species in cleaning cadmium contaminated soils in Irankooh region

Nowadays, heavy metal contaminated soils is one of the most important concerns of the world and cleaning these soils with minimum environmental damage is necessary especially in urban and agricultural regions through advanced biological methods. Phytoremdiation is one of the modern technologies that could be used in large scale with minimum damage to environment. High concentration of cadmium, as an environmental pollutant, could be harmful for human and animals. Regarding to this reason, a study was carried out on 11 plant species in Irankouh region at three sites including three levels of high, medium and low cadmium contamination. The bioaccumulation of cadmium in shoots and roots of plants, and translocation factor were measured. According to the results, Astragalus glaucanthus, Ebenus estellata and Acantholimon sp. showed the highest values of cadmium concentration (1.40, 1.53 and 1.97 mg/kg dry matter), and also the highest translocation factor (2.09, 1.37 and 12.6), respectively. Because of the high values of biomass and bioaccumulation, these three plants are recommended for phytoremediation of cadmium-contaminated soils under the same conditions.