Seasonal variation in tissue-borne heavy Metal(loid)s in herbaceous plants growing in contaminated soils developed from industrial wastes of industrial revolution age

Obinna Elijah Nworie,Chuxia Lin

doi:10.1016/j.envadv.2021.100113

Obinna Elijah Nworie, Chuxia Lin

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envadv.2021.100113

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Abstract

• 1-year field monitoring of plant uptake of metal(loid)s from contaminated soils. • Different seasonal variation patterns for different metal(loid)s in shoot tissue. • Shoot-borne heavy metal(loid)s were below permissible levels except for Cd. • Phytoextraction had negligible effects on metal(loid)s except for Cd, Mn and Zn. • Creeping bentgrass ecotype has the potential for clean-up of Cd-contaminated soils. A 1-year monitoring program was performed to examine the seasonal variation in shoot-borne heavy metal(loid)s in a dominant herbaceous plant species (creeping bentgrass) growing in contaminated soils developed from industrial wastes of Industrial Revolution age in Greater Manchester, UK. Heavy metal(loid)s in soil and plant tissues were quantified by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) after microwave-assisted acid digestion. The results show that different heavy metal(loid)s in the shoot tissue had different seasonal variation patterns. Seasonal shoot cutting-regrowth did not markedly affect the accumulation of various heavy metal(loid)s in the shoots. The concentration of shoot-borne heavy metal(loid)s was below the maximum tolerable level set for cattle except for Cd during spring-summer. The seasonal variation pattern for removal rate of Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn was strongly controlled by seasonal variation in biomass yield. The heavy metal(loid) removal from the soils via seasonal shoot harvest was 0.11, 0.56, 0.57, 3.56, 60.4, 0.34, 0.27 and 12.3 mg/m 2 for As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn, respectively. It is estimated that during the 1-year monitoring period, only 0.0002, 0.4014, 0.0142, 0.0423, 0.1627, 0.0154, 0.0008 and 0.1840% of the total metal(loid)s were removed from the soil by the plant shoots for As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn, respectively. Phytoextraction literally had negligible effects on removing the investigated heavy metal(loid)s from the contaminated soils except for Cd, Mn and Zn. The average bioaccumulation factor for the investigated heavy metal(loid)s was in the following decreasing order: Zn > Mn > Cu > Cr > Ni > Cd > Pb > As. The translocation factor for Cd was over 10 under either non-regrowth or cutting-regrowth conditions although the bioaccumulation factor was smaller than 0.5. The research findings obtained from this study have implications for risk assessment and management of the industrial waste-turned contaminated soils.

Highlights

The presence of scattering contaminated sites is an important char acteristic of industrial cities, the historical industrial centres where dumping of industrial wastes was hardly regulated (BenDor et al, 2011; Njue et al, 2012; Martuzzi et al, 2014)
The objectives of this study were to (a) monitor seasonal variation in shoot-borne heavy metal(loid)s of herbaceous plants growing in contaminated soils with and without seasonal shoot cuttingregrowth arrangement, (b) evaluate the effect of harvest frequency on the removal effect of soil-borne heavy metal(loid)s, and (c) evaluate the environmental risk of heavy metal(loid)-containing plant shoots
In contrast with the non-regrowth condition, the shoot-borne Zn consis tently decreased from the summer to the autumn to the winter and to the spring (Table 3). These results suggest that seasonal shoot-regrowth did not markedly affect the accumulation of various heavy metal(loid)s in the shoots

Summary

Introduction

The presence of scattering contaminated sites is an important char acteristic of industrial cities, the historical industrial centres where dumping of industrial wastes was hardly regulated (BenDor et al, 2011; Njue et al, 2012; Martuzzi et al, 2014). Since these environ mental footprints are often in close proximity to residential areas, their impacts on urban ecosystem and human health are potentially remark able. Accumulation of potentially toxic heavy metal(loid)s in the aerial portion of the plants could cause dispersion of these ele ments into other environmental compartments when wild animals consume the forage or when the leaf litters are transported out of the

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