Phytoremediation of Nickel and Lead Contaminated Soils by Hedera colchica

ABSTRACT

Phytoremediation is an effective and affordable technological solution to extract or remove metal pollutants from contaminated soil. In this study, the ability of Hedera colchica plant for the removal of Pb and Ni metals with different concentrations from soil and also metal efficacy on morphological parameters of the plant were investigated. The morphological results showed that as the concentration of heavy metals increases in soil up to 600 mg.kg⁻¹ soil, the dry weights of shoot and root reduce about 46 and 60% with Pb and 18 and 51% with Ni, and also total length up to 31% with Pb and 3% with Ni, respectively. The maximum concentration of Pb and Ni in shoots (92.2 and 77.2 mg.kg⁻¹ Dwt, respectively) and roots (252 and 218 mg.kg⁻¹, respectively) were recorded in the cultivated plant in soil amended with metal high concentrations. The highest bio-concentration (BCF) and translocation factor (TF) were recorded for Pb in the roots. In addition, this study showed that H. colchica plant was more favorable for Pb uptake compared to Ni, but we do not suggest using it for the remediation of the contaminated soils with Pb and Ni metals.

KEYWORDS:

• Heavy metal
• contaminated soil
• Hedera colchica
• plant biomass
• phytoremediation

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Esmaeil Biazar for his helpful advice on various technical issues examined in this paper.

Disclosure statement

The Authors have no conflict of interest.