Authors: KaiWei Juang HungYu Lai BoChing Chen
Publish Date: 2011/03/16
Volume: 20, Issue: 4, Pages: 827-835
Abstract
A major challenge in phytoextraction is to increase plants’ removal rates of metals from contaminated soils In this study we developed a phytoextraction model by coupling a saturable Michaelis–Menten type accumulation model and an energybased toxicity model to predict copper Cu removal by switchgrass Panicum virgatum L grown hydroponically under various exposure concentrations Results of the present study indicated that the phytotoxicity of Cu to switchgrass is relatively low whereas a certain accumulation capacity exists in the plant for Cu In addition the simulation results suggested that under a lower dissolved concentration Cu removal is increased more efficiently as the exposure duration increases Although it is difficult to extrapolate the results from greenhousebased hydroponic experiments to field conditions we believe that the current methodology can offer a first approximation in predicting the phytoextraction duration needed for plant species to remove a specific metal from contaminated sites which is crucial in evaluating the economic costs for remediation purposes
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