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Title: The potential for heavy metal decontamination

Conference ·
OSTI ID:471968
 [1]; ;  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Sheffield (United Kingdom)
  2. AFRC Institute of Arable Crops Research, Harpenden (United Kingdom)
  3. Massey Univ., Palmerston North (New Zealand)

Preliminary trials to assess the ability of plant species to extract metals are presented. A range of zinc and nickel hyperaccumulator plants from the Brassicaceae family, collected from diverse populations in Europe, were grown on plots along with nonaccumulating crop plants from the same family. Extraction efficiencies and the number of croppings required to reduce the total zinc in the soil to a concentration of 300 mg/kg are tabulated. Zinc accumulation remained high over a wide range of soil metal concentration. However, the concentration of nickel in the hyperaccumulators increased in accordance with increasing total nickel concentrations in the soil. Calculations suggest that there is an excellent potential for using hyperaccumulator species to remove metals from the rhizosphere where remediation can be considered over a period of years and multiple cropping is a viable option.

OSTI ID:
471968
Report Number(s):
CONF-960592-; TRN: 97:001392-0006
Resource Relation:
Conference: Symposium on phytoremediation, Arlington, VA (United States), 8-10 May 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Phytoremediation; PB: 264 p.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English