EVALUATION OF PHYTOREMEDIATION POTENTIAL OF CYPERUS PAPYRUS FOR NI, CD AND PB REMOVAL FROM HEAVY METAL POLLUTED WATER

Authors

1 Dept. Soil and Water, Fac. Environ. Agric. Sci., Suez Canal University, Arish, Egypt.

2 Dept. Soil Sci., Fac. Agric., Zagazig Univ., Egypt.

Abstract

One of the emerging technologies which can provide effective, low-cost treatment is the use of hyper accumulator plants management to remove toxic heavy metals from polluted water. In this study, Cyperus papyrus (paper reed) plant was evaluated with respect to its potential to clean up heavy metal pollutants from synthetic heavy metal polluted water. A pot experiment was conducted using three heavy metal concentrations of Pb, Cd and Ni (i.e. ML1: 10, 1.0 and 0.1 mgl-1, ML2: 20, 2.0, 0.2 mgl-1 and ML0 as a control treatment (tap water), respectively). Both plant roots and shoots sampled were after 40, 80 and 120 days from transplanting. The results showed that studied heavy metals accumulated in the roots of the studied plant are higher than those in shoots. The main effective factor governing metal uptake was found soil pH. The results also showed that plant parts and heavy metal concentrations in synthetic polluted water had the strongest significant effect with Cd uptake after 80 days from transplanting than from low concentration treatments. A significant effect of the plant parts has been observed after 40 and 120 days from transplanting. In addition, Pb uptake has been affected by neither heavy metal concentrations in synthetic polluted water nor plant parts. Plant parts and heavy metal concentrations in synthetic polluted water interaction showed the effect on Cd uptake comparing to the other two studied metals (Ni and Pb). In attempting to predict metal uptake by plant, a multiple regression models was undertaken using studied soil parameters (e.g. pH and pe). It was observed that pH had a most significant effect in governing metal uptake mechanism and approximately 47%, 34% and 39% of the variability in the pMuptake (-log values) of Cd, Ni and Pb respectively, were explained by the variation in soil pH and pe.

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