Are Grasses Really Useful for the Phytoremediation of Potentially Toxic Trace Elements? A Review
2021
Rabêlo, Flávio Henrique Silveira | Vangronsveld, Jaco | Baker, Alan | van Der Ent, Antony | Alleoni, Luís Reynaldo Ferracciú | Universidade de São Paulo = University of São Paulo (USP) | Hasselt University (UHasselt) | Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej = University Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej [Lublin] (UMCS) | Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, SMI, University of Queensland, QLD 4072 St. Lucia, Australia | School of BioSciences [Melbourne] ; Faculty of Science [Melbourne] ; University of Melbourne-University of Melbourne | Laboratoire Sols et Environnement (LSE) ; Université de Lorraine (UL)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE) | This review was supported through financial support for FHSR by the Brazilian Federal Government Agency, Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel - CAPES (grant number 1332394), by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development CNPq (grant number 306403/2013-7), and by the São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP (grants number 2012/12894-3, 2012/11859-0, 2014/16731-7, 2014/18735-0, 2015/21562-2, 2017/11299-8, and 2018/07190-3).
International audience
Show more [+] Less [-]English. The pollution of soil, water, and air by potentially toxic trace elements poses risks to environmental and human health. For this reason, many chemical, physical, and biological processes of remediation have been developed to reduce the (available) trace element concentrations in the environment. Among those technologies, phytoremediation is an environmentally friendly in situ and cost-effective approach to remediate sites with low-to-moderate pollution with trace elements. However, not all species have the potential to be used for phytoremediation of trace element-polluted sites due to their morpho-physiological characteristics and low tolerance to toxicity induced by the trace elements. Grasses are prospective candidates due to their high biomass yields, fast growth, adaptations to infertile soils, and successive shoot regrowth after harvest. A large number of studies evaluating the processes related to the uptake, transport, accumulation, and toxicity of trace elements in grasses assessed for phytoremediation have been conducted. The aim of this review is (i) to synthesize the available information on the mechanisms involved in uptake, transport, accumulation, toxicity, and tolerance to trace elements in grasses; (ii) to identify suitable grasses for trace element phytoextraction, phytostabilization, and phytofiltration; (iii) to describe the main strategies used to improve trace element phytoremediation efficiency by grasses; and (iv) to point out the advantages, disadvantages, and perspectives for the use of grasses for phytoremediation of trace element-polluted soils.
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