Mosses accumulate heavy metals from the substrata of coal ash

Vanja Vukojevic,S. Jovanovic,Marko Sabovljevic

doi:10.2298/abs0502101v

Vanja Vukojevic, S. Jovanovic + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.2298/abs0502101v

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Abstract

Plants that are able to accumulate and tolerate extraordinarily high concentrations of heavy metals (hyperaccumulators) can be used for phytoremediation (removal of contaminants from soils) or phytomining (growing a crop of plants to harvest the metals). Two moss species, Bryum capillare Hedw. and Ceratodon purpureus Hedw., were tested as potential phytoremedies under in vivo conditions on a coal ash disposal site in the surroundings of Obrenovac (NW Serbia). The content of various heavy metals (iron, manganese zinc, lead, nickel, cadmium, and copper) in the mosses and substrata were investigated over a period of three years. Iron and zinc were found to have the highest concentration in the mosses.

Highlights

The use of plants to extract heavy metals from substrata has recently received much attention due to the possibility of decontaminating some of the earth's ever-increasing burden of polluted soils (S a l t et al 1995; Robinson et al 1999)
Bryum capillare and Ceratodon purpureus can be considered hyperaccumulator species for heavy metals, whose content in them comprises more than 0.1% dw in all cases and more than 1% for Fe, Zn, Pb, Cu
Protonema binding the surface of heavy metal-rich substrata stabilize them, and developing shoots, mats, and patches of bryophytes make seed beds for vascular plants, which develop spontaneously in these bare spaces

Summary

Introduction

The use of plants to extract heavy metals from substrata (phytoextraction) has recently received much attention due to the possibility of decontaminating some of the earth's ever-increasing burden of polluted soils (phytoremediation) (S a l t et al 1995; Robinson et al 1999). A crop of plants is grown in soil containing elevated concentrations of one or more trace metals. Most of the burnt material seeks deposition in some smaller areas, but the wind can cause damage to surrounding soil surfaces. This procedure is not always useful, considering that many plants are not appropriate for growing in great biomass and certainly not in such contaminated soil. In most of the attempts performed so far, vascular plants were used

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