The investigation of the possibility for using some wild and cultivated plants as hyperaccumulators of heavy metals from contaminated soil

Maric, Miroslava; Antonijević, Milan; Alagic, Sladjana

The investigation of the possibility for using some wild and cultivated plants as hyperaccumulators of heavy metals from contaminated soil

2013

Maric, Miroslava | Antonijević, Milan | Alagic, Sladjana

The copper production in Bor (East Serbia) during the last 100 years presents an important source of the pollution of environment. Dust, waste waters, tailing, and air pollutants influence the quality of soil, water, and air. Over 2,000 ha of fertile soil have been damaged by the flotation tailing from Bor’s facilities. The goal of the present work has been to determine the content of Pb, Cu, and Fe in wild plants (17 species) naturally growing in the damaged soil and in fodder crops (nine species) planted at the same place. The content of Pb, Cu, and Fe has been analyzed in damaged soil as well. This study has also searched for native (wild) and cultivated plants which are able to grow in contaminated soil in the area of the intense industrial activity of copper production in Bor, which means that they can accumulate and tolerate heavy metals in their above-ground tissues. It has been found out that the content of all metals in contaminated soil decreases considerably at the end of the experiment. As it has been expected, all plant species could accumulate investigated metals. All tested plants, both wild-growing and cultivated plants, seem to be quite healthy on the substrate which contained extremely high concentrations of copper.

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