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Abstract
Arsenic is a common contaminant in soils and water. It is well established that the fern Pteris vittata L. is an As hyperaccumulator and therefore has potential to phyroremediate As-polluted soils. Also, it is accepted that rhizosphere microflora play an enhancing role in plant uptake of metallic elements from soils. Studies showed that hydroponiclly grown P. Vittata accumulated arsenite more than the arsenate form of As apparently because arsenate and phosphate are analogues and therefore its absorption is inhibited by phosphate. The objective of this study was to determine whether addition of five different arsenate-reducing bacteria would enhance arsenic uptake by P. vittata grown in arsenic polluted soils in a field experiment. Results showed that addition of the As reducing bacteria promoted the growth of P. vittata, increased As accumulation, activated soil insoluble As, and reduced As leaching compared to the untreated control. Plant biomass increased by 53% and As uptake by 44%. As leaching was reduced by 29% to 71% depending on the As reducing bacterium. The results in their entirety permitted some insight into the mechanisms by which the arsenate reducing bacteria enhanced the effectiveness of P. vittata to remove As from the polluted soil.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by China National High-Tech R&D Program (Grant 2006AA10Z405; 2007AA06Z332), China National Natural Science Foundation (Grant 40771184) and special grant of Application of Nuclear Techniques in Agriculture from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (200803034). We thank Professor Naraine Persaud for his wonderful revision of this manuscript. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments, which help to greatly improve the quality of this manuscript.