Phytoremediation of arsenic contaminated soils by Arundo donax L. enhanced with Earth Total Support (ETS)

Abstract

Applying microbial fertilizer to assist phytoremediation using high production energy crops is a promising method to improve the removal efficiency of metals contaminated soils. The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of Earth Total Support (ETS, a complex microbial agent) in enhancing the phytoremediation of Arsenic (As) in soils using Arundo donax L, which were grown in mesocosms with As at 20 mg kg-1. The results showed that the addition of ETS significantly increase the biomass of A. donax L by 27.27 %–37.04 %. Additionally, ETS was found to mitigate the adverse effects of As stress on A. donax L by enhancing net photosynthetic rate and transpiration, increasing the activities of superoxide dismutases and peroxidases, and decreased malondialdehyde content. Moreover, the addition of ETS led to a 99.25 % increase in As content in roots and a 7.10 % increase in stems. These findings suggest that ETS agents hold promise in improving the remediation efficiency of low concentration As contaminated soil by significantly increasing the biomass of A. donax and facilitating As extraction.