Plant Colonization and Arsenic Uptake on High Arsenic Mine Wastes, New Zealand

Abstract

Substrates associated with two historic gold mining sites in north Westland, New Zealand, have locally very high arsenic concentrations (commonly 10–40 wt% As). The substrates consist of iron oxyhydroxide precipitates, and processing mill residues. Waters associated with some of these substrates have high dissolved arsenic (commonly 10–50 mg/L As). Natural revegetation of these very high arsenic sites has occurred over the past 50 years, although some areas of substrate remain bare. Revegetating species include native and adventive shrubs, adventive grasses, rushes, and mosses, and native ferns. Revegetation by higher plants follows initial colonization by mosses, and some shrubs are growing directly in high-arsenic substrate. Shrubs, especially manuka (Leptospermum scoparium), gorse (Ulex europaeus), tree fuchsia (Fuchsia excorticata) and broadleaf (Griselinia littoralis) largely exclude arsenic from their shoots (< 10 mg/kg dry weight) irrespective of the As content of the substrate. Likewise, most grasses, and reeds (Juncus spp.), have only modest As contents (typically < 100 mg/kg dry weight). However, mosses growing on high-arsenic substrates have strongly elevated arsenic contents (> 0.2% dry weight). In particular, the moss Pohlia wahlenbergii acts as a hyperaccumulator, with up to 3% (dry weight) As. Antimony (Sb) contents of all plants are about one thousandth of that of arsenic, reflecting the As/Sb ratio of the substrates. Plant establishment in the high-As substrates may be locally limited by low nutrient status, rather than arsenic toxicity. The shrubs, grasses, and reeds identified in this study are arsenic tolerant and largely exclude arsenic from their shoots so that revegetation with these species, can help to isolate the high-arsenic substrates from the surface environment. These species could be used as phytostabilisation agents on high-arsenic sites that are remote from human habitation. In contrast, the mosses, despite their high arsenic tolerance, are a less desirable component of revegetation of high-arsenic substrates because they actively transfer arsenic from the substrate to the biosphere.