Phytostabilzation as a sustainable phytoremediation strategy for lead contaminated soil – Screening of biofuel plants for lead tolerance and accumulation

Abstract

The contamination of soil by lead has one of the major environmental problems globally. In present study, the experiment was carried out for lead contaminated soil with four plant species i.e., A. esculentus, A. sativa, G. abyssinica and G. max that were subjected to six lead concentrations i.e., 100, 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 mg Pb kg-1 soil. Soil without spiked were taken as control and investigated for lead phytotoxicity, tolerance and accumulation. After 12 weeks of experiment, lead toxicity on growth and biochemi-cal parameters were determined. For four plant species, seed germination and most of the growth parameters were significantly (p<0.05) reduced under high lead stress. Chloro-phyll contents were also decreased with increased lead concentrations. Accumulation of lead was higher in roots than shoots of all studied plants. Among the four plant species, significant highest lead accumulation was found in the roots and shoots of A. sativa. Bio-concentration factor, bioaccumulation coefficient, translocation factor and phytoremdia-tion ratios were suggested that A. sativa with high lead tolerance and accumulation capac-ity has considered an efficient plant for the reclamation of lead contaminated soil.