Phytoaccumulation of heavy metals by terrestrial plants around vanadium smelters

Abstract

Twenty-nine species samples of higher plants which belong to twenty families and seven soil samples were collected from a vanadium smelter. The contents of heavy metals in the native plants and soil were analyzed by ICP-MS and ICP-OES. The results show that the soil of the smelting plant area has general Cr,Cd and V pollution phenomena; moreover,V and Cr pollution is conspicuous. V,Cr,Cd and Pb are detected from all these collected polluted higher plants,and the content of V is the highest. Pteris vittata L,the native plant,has the highest V content; the accumulation amounts of the aboveground part and the underground part are 86.51 mg·kg-1 and 814.25 mg·kg-1,respectively. The enrichment and transport capacity of Daucus carota L is obviously higher than that of other plants; the accumulation amounts of the aboveground part and the underground part are 18.56 mg·kg-1 and 5.66 mg·kg-1,respectively. These two kinds of plants show high tolerance to heavy metal pollution in the vanadium smelting plant area,and they can be used as pioneer species of pollution remediation.

Keywords

• heavy metals
• vanadium smelters
• phytoaccumulation
• ecological rehabilitation