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Assessing the Phytoremediation Potential of Tall Fescue and Sericea Lespedeza for Organic Contaminants in Soil
Author(s) -
Chekol Tesema,
Vough Lester R.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
remediation journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 1520-6831
pISSN - 1051-5658
DOI - 10.1002/rem.10037
Subject(s) - phytoremediation , festuca arundinacea , agronomy , lespedeza , organic matter , legume , soil water , pyrene , sowing , soil organic matter , chemistry , environmental chemistry , environmental science , biology , poaceae , soil science , organic chemistry
The phytoremediation potential of using tall fescue ( Festuca arundinacea Schreb.)grass and sericea lespedeza ( Lespedeza cuneata [Dum. ‐Cours.])legume species was assessed using three different groups of organic contaminants in soil. One hundred parts permillion (ppm) each of a nitroaromatic compound (TNT), a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon(Pyrene), and a polychlorinated biphenyl (Aroclor 1248) were used to contaminate the soils.The experiments were conducted using soils with high and low organic‐matter content. The resultsindicate that recoveries of Pyrene and TNT were very low in all treatments in soil with highorganic‐matter content (6.3 percent) compared with recoveries in soil with loworganic‐matter content (2.6 percent). In contrast, recoveries of PCB from soil were notdependent on the soil's organic‐matter content. Planting both the legume and grass species hadsignificant effect on the transformations of TNT and PCB in the soil with low organic‐matter content anddid not affect the fate of Pyrene in both soils. The amount of TNT transformed in the four months of plantgrowth was 63 percent in the tall fescue and 46 percent in the sericea‐planted soils, compared with onlya 15 percent unaccounted loss in the unplanted control soils. Furthermore, the grass species, with its massiveroot system, was significantly better at causing TNT dissipation compared with the legume species, which hasless root vegetative mass. The plant biomass, particularly the shoot weight of the tall fescue grass, wassignificantly increased as a result of TNT treatment. Tall fescue and sericea biomass did not appear to haveany significant effect on Pyrene transformation. Planting sericea provided a significantly high level of PCBtransformation in soils with either high or low amounts of organic matter. Tall fescue did not appear to haveany significant effect on PCB transformation. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.