Investigating the heavy metals’ removal capacity of some native plant species from the wetland groundwater of Maharlu Lake in Fars province, Iran

Abstract

Saline Maharlu Lake in southern Iran is the outlet of Shiraz-Sarvestan basin, an inland flat lake, which its surroundings appear as wetland environment. The groundwater of the wetland area is polluted with heavy metals from the lake, and the wetland native plants grown in this area potentially have the tendency of uptaking the heavy metals from their rhizosphere environments. The lake is in hydraulic connection with its wetland groundwater and reverse hydraulic gradient results in movement of pollutants into the aquifers. This study aims to realize the wetland native plants efficiency in phytoremediation of the heavy metal. Groundwater samples were collected for analysis from rhizosphere of Jancus sp., Tamarix sp., and Suaeda sp. and compared with those of wetland regions without plants. Depletion and bio-concentration factors were calculated to evaluate the plants capability in removing metals from the wetland and determining the more suitable plant for phytoremediation. Results showed depletion of metals in the plant areas in compare with the bare land regions. Among the plants, the most depletion is for Jancus sp. followed by Tamarix sp. and Suaeda sp. The results also highlighted the potential of Jancus sp. for enhancing phytoremediation of heavy metal contaminated wetland, especially for Pb.

Keywords:

• Bio-concentration factor
• depletion factor
• heavy metal
• Maharlu wetland
• phytoremediation

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) for the partial financial support and Shiraz University, Vice Chancellor for Research Affairs.