Abstract
Over the past several years, scientists have discovered many examples of living plants that can remove heavy metals and other pollutants from soil and water. This potential approach to cleaning the environment, termed phytoremediation, draws on our centuries of experience in cultivating crops and is emerging as a low cost treatment technology. The idea that plants can be used for environmental remediation is not new. Extensive research on using plants and entire ecosystems for treating radionuclide contamination took place in Russia in the early 1960s (Timofeev-Resovsky, et al., 1962). Since then, there have been a number of reports that aquatic plants such as water hyacinth, duckweed and water velvet can accumulate Pb, Cu, Cd, Fe, and Hg from contaminated water (Mo, et al., 1989; Jackson, et al., 1990; Dierberg, et al., 1987). This ability is currently utilized in many constructed wetlands, which can be effective in removing some heavy metals and organics from water (Jain, et al., 1989).
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Ensley, B.D., Raskin, I., Salt, D.E. (1997). Phytoremediation Applications for Removing Heavy Metal Contamination from Soil and Water. In: Sayler, G.S., Sanseverino, J., Davis, K.L. (eds) Biotechnology in the Sustainable Environment. Environmental Science Research, vol 54. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5395-3_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5395-3_6
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