Abstract
Root systems are sensitive to voltage and tend to improve the degradation of organic pollutants by promoting the root exudates and increasing microbial enzyme activity in the rhizosphere under the effect of electrokinetic. In this study, electrokinetic-assisted phytoremediation (EKPR) was applied for the remediation of soil containing phenanthrene (PHE) and pyrene (PYR). Direct current (DC) voltage (1 V cm−1) was applied across the soils for 30 days following 3 treatment schedules (0 h, 4 h, and 12 h per day), referred to as treatments EK0, EK4, and EK12. Electrokinetic assistance improved phytoremediation. Compared to EK0, the removal of PHE and PYR increased by 51.79% and 45.07% for EK4 and by 43.18% and 38.75% for EK12. The applied voltage promoted root growth, stimulated the root exudate release, and increased accumulation of PHE and PYR by plants, and the effect was most pronounced in treatment EK4. Catalase and urease activities in rhizosphere soil also increased, by respective increments of 44.51% and 40.86% for EK4 and by 28.53% and 21.24% for EK12. In this study, we demonstrated that a low voltage applied for an appropriate duration (4 h per day) improves removal of PAHs by stimulating root growth, promoting the root exudate release and enhancing enzyme activity in the microbiome of rhizosphere soil.
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Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 42107441, 22136003, 42177397), the 111 Project (D20015), the Research Project of Hubei Provincial Department of Education (Q20211205), the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2020CFB153), and Open Fund of Engineering Research Center of Eco-environment in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (No: KF2022-03).
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Ming Li: formal analysis, data curation, writing—original draft. Yingping Huang: writing, review and editing; resources; funding acquisition. Kun Li: conceptualization, methodology. Xi Yuan: supervision, funding acquisition. Huigang Liu: conceptualization. Meng Li: methodology. Tao Xu: formal analysis, funding acquisition. Zhaonian Zhang: funding acquisition. David M Johnson: writing—review and editing. Ying Xi: conceptualization; formal analysis; writing, original draft; funding acquisition.
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Li, M., Huang, Y., Li, K. et al. Enhancement of electrokinetic-phytoremediation by Ophiopogon japonicus: stimulation of electrokinetic on root system and improvement of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon degradation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 97591–97600 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29342-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29342-7