Phytoremediation potential of flowering plants in relation to lead

Abstract

This paper deals with the study of the phytoremediation potential of flowering plants in relation to lead ions under laboratory conditions. The test cultures were phacelia tansy ( Phacelia tanacetifolia Benth.), white mustard ( Sinapis alba L.), small-flowered marigolds ( Tagеtes patula L.) and a mixture of cereal grasses consisting of red fescue 40% ( Festuca rubra L.), perennial ryegrass 50% ( Lolium perenne L.) and meadow bluegrass 10% ( Poa pratensis L.). Under the experimental conditions lead ions in concentrations of 2 and 10 MPC were introduced into the soil sampled from the territory of agricultural lands (leached medium-thick heavy loamy chernozem with a high content of humus, mobile phosphorus and exchangeable potassium, low content of nitrate nitrogen, bulk and mobile forms of lead). It has been established that all representatives of weeds, ornamental and green manure plants selected as test crops are capable, to one degree or another, of accumulating lead ions from soils and therefore can function as phytoremediators of agricultural lands intended for organic farming. The ability to accumulate lead ions increases in the following order: phacelia – marigolds – mustard – a mixture of cereal grasses. The maximum effect of phytoremediation of the soil was revealed in the variant with a cereal mixture (the content of lead ions in the soil with the introduction of 2 MPC decreases by 32,8%, with the introduction of 10 MPC – by 23,6%).