Short-term influence of nutrient availability on the uptake and translocation of phenanthrene in mangrove seedlings

Abstract

The uptake and distribution of phenanthrene, a typical polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, in plant tissues of Aegiceras corniculatum and Avicennia marina and the relationship with nutrient (nitrate, ammonium, and soluble reactive phosphorus) availability were investigated. After 12 h of exposure, enhancements in the concentration of nitrate and soluble reactive phosphorus markedly decreased the residual level of phenanthrene in roots, while the addition of ammonium significantly increased the residual concentration. Due to the similar enzymatic degradation potential between treatment groups, the variation of phenanthrene concentration in mangrove roots may result from the H⁺/phenanthrene cotransport at the root surface that was influenced by nutrient uptake. Moreover, both nitrate and soluble reactive phosphorus amendments significantly increased translocation of phenanthrene from roots to leaves, which likely resulted from the change of hydraulic conductivity in mangrove plants triggered by different nutrient availability.

Keywords:

• PAH Uptake
• mangrove
• nutrient
• translocation

Acknowledgements

Technical support by Dr. Jingna Du, Dr. Feng Xie, Dr. Wenyun Wang, Mrs. Jing Ye, Mrs. Yan Su and Mr. Tao Liu is gratefully acknowledged. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Alexandra Oppelt at Trinity College Dublin for the great help in grammar. Thanks are also due to the anonymous reviewers and the editor, whose comments helped to improve the original manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31530008, 31870483), National Key Research and Development Program of China(2016YFA0601402), Science and Technology Project of Quanzhou City (2014Z120).