Phytoremediation of hazardous toxic metals and organics by photosynthetic aquatic systems

Abstract

The development of effective strategies to rehabilitate compromised environments is one of the major challenges facing the postindustrial society, since most of the habitats are becoming progressively polluted due to indiscriminate discharge of contaminants generated by anthropogenic activities. Several aquatic photosynthetic organisms can be used to treat wastewaters in primary and tertiary treatments, including cyanobacteria, algae and higher plants. In this review, we summarize the results obtained in the remediation of polluted waters by photosynthetic organisms and discuss the future perspective of phytoremediation.

Keywords:

• Phytoremediation
• wastewater
• removal of toxic heavy metals
• oil spills, herbicides
• aquatic macrophytes
• cyanobacteria
• algae