The effects of alginate microspheres on phytoremediation and growth of Lemna minor in the presence of Cd

ABSTRACT

Today, the removal of increased amount of contaminant concentrations in nature such as metals, nanoparticles, has become an essential issue to struggle with. In this paper, both the toxic effects of non-essential Cd on Lemna minor in presence of alginate microspheres and metal removal capacity of Cd-exposed L. minor and microspheres were investigated. Three test groups were constructed: group (L) containing Lemna, group (M) containing alginate microsphere and group (L + M) containing alginate microsphere and Lemna. Five different levels of Cd concentrations were added into these groups. Estimation models were constructed to estimate Cd removal capacities of L. minor and microspheres, and time-concentration-dependent growth (GRC) rates of both microsphere-containing and non-containing groups were modelled by regression analysis. It was seen that microspheres alone only had no positive or negative effects on Lemna growth. It was observed that, for all test groups the time-dependent growth rate has both increase–decrease trends in general. The toxicity effect of Cd on Lemna growth was reduced by adding microspheres into medium. Furthermore, the results stated that test groups containing only microspheres (M, 0–97.56%) and consortium groups (M + L, 0–98.26%) were slightly more successful in Cd removal process compared to Lemna (L) groups (L, 0–97.32%).

KEYWORDS:

• Alginate
• micropsheres
• Cd
• Lemna minor
• removal

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Esra Üçüncü Tunca is a post-doc researcher in the Fatsa Faculty of Marine Sciences, Department of Marine Sciences and Technology Engineering in Ordu University, Turkey. She completed her Ph.D at Ankara University, Turkey, in the department of Biology/Hydrobiology in 2014. During her Ph.D, she started working as a guest researcher at Bilkent University National Nanotechnology Research Center, Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology. Her research subjects focused on metal accumulation profile, risk assessment, pollution prevention and remediation of the water. Recently, due to development of nanotechnology, the potential toxic effects of nanoparticles on living organism have been causes of concern; so she focused on the toxicity of nanoparticles by simulating the natural environment, synthesized microspheres including different content and used the microspheres in the remediation process. Her researches promote the innovative technologies that can be used for environmental clean-up and remediation.

Kader Terzioğlu received a bachelor’s degree in aquaculture engineering from SinopUniversity in 2014 and a master’s degree in fisheries technology engineering in 2016 from Ordu University in Turkey. Her primary research interests are in the field of environmental science and processing technology.

Hasan Türe is an Assistant Professor at Ordu University, Fatsa Faculty of Marine Science, where he has been a faculty member since 2014. Hasan completed his Ph.D at the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, in the department of Polymer Technology in 2013. His research interests lie in the area of polymer science and biomaterials. Hasan’s teaching interests include polymer technology, biodegradable polymers and nanotechnology. In recent years, he has focused on developing bio-based microspheres for the removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solution. He has collaborated actively with researchers in several other disciplines of material science and food engineering.