Remediation of soil co-contaminated with pyrene and cadmium by growing P.australis (common reed)

Background/Question/Methods

Soil contamination is currently the most severe problem as it poses a toxicological impact on human health and ecosystems. Phytoremediation is a promising green technology for the reclamation of sites contaminated with organic and inorganic pollutant. The growth of Phragmites australis and removal of contaminants from cadmium (Cd) and Pyrene (PYR) co-contaminated soil were reported in this study. A greenhouse experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of 20 and 40mg kg-1 of cadmium (Cd) or 50 and 100mg kg-1 of pyrene (PYR) and the combined effect of Cd-PYR on the growth of P. australis together with the uptake and accumulation of Cd as well as removal of PYR. Results demonstrated that the single or co- contaminants of Cd and PYR did not affect plant growth relative to control treatments, except low Cd and high PYR treatment, which showed a significant increase in 91% biomass compared to the control.

Results/Conclusions

However, under the joint effect of Cd-PYR, P. australis was unwilling to uptake and translocate Cd, and bioconcentration factor (BCF) and translocation factor (TrF) values were less than one. The removal rate of PYR in the soils and soil enzymes was negatively impacted at the elevated Cd level in the soil. Our results shows that P. australis may have the potential for phytostabilization but cannot be useful for phytoextraction。