Progress 09/15/02 to 09/14/05
Outputs
Arsenic is of great environmental concern due to its extensive contamination and carcinogenic toxicity. Agricultural activities have resulted in numerous arsenic contaminated sites worldwide. Phytoremediation, a plant-based green technology, has been successfully used to remove a variety of contaminants from soils, except for arsenic. We have recently discovered the first-known arsenic hyperaccumulating plant, Chinese Brake fern (Pteris vitatta), which has great potential for remediating arsenic-contaminated land (Ma et al. 2001. Nature. 409:579). The information obtained from this current research will be critical for selecting the most efficient arsenic hyperaccumulating plant to clean up arsenic contaminated soils. The results will further our understanding on the feasibility of applying a plant-based remediation technology to contaminated soils in the tropics and subtropics. Successful completion of this proposed research should have significant impacts on the
long-term improvement in and sustainability of US agriculture due to the well-publicized adverse environmental impacts of widespread arsenic contamination in agricultural soils. The objectives for this research include: (1). investigating the effectiveness of Chinese Brake fern in continuously removing arsenic from soils its impacts on arsenic availability in soils, (2). determining if all Brake ferns in the tropics and subtropics are equally effective for phytoremediating arsenic contaminated soils, and (3) screening additional ferns in the tropics and subtropics for their capability in hyperaccumulating arsenic from soils. During the past two years, we have made much progresses. I have successfully recruited a full-time Ph.D student Maria Gonzaga and a part-time post-doctoral scientist Dr. M. Srivastava to work on the project. Maria has started the experiment addressing objective 1. She has harvested the plant two times after growing in various arsenic contaminated soils for up to
two years and is in the process of analyzing the soil and plant samples from the second. This experiment will be continued for at least one year. In addition, Dr. Srivastava has successfully completed two screening studies to address objectives 2 and 3. After exposing arsenic to different ferns for up to two weeks, he has harvested the plants and analyzed total arsenic in the plants.
Impacts
Results from our research should be useful for implementing phytoremediation technology to clean up arsenic contaminated soils in tropical and subtropical areas.
Publications
- 1. Gonzaga, M. I. S., J. A. G. Santos, L. Q. Ma, and N. B. Comerford. 2003. Root characteristic and arsenic uptake of As hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata L. and non accumulator Nephrolepis exaltata L. Plant Soil. In review. 2. Luongo, L. and L.Q. Ma. 2003. Characteristics of arsenic accumulation by Pteris and non Pteris ferns. Environment Pollution. To be submitted. 3. Srivastava, M. and L.Q. Ma. 2003. Screening of arsenic accumulations by different ferns. Accepted by Int. J. Phytoremediation.
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Progress 10/01/02 to 10/01/03
Outputs
Arsenic is of great environmental concern due to its extensive contamination and carcinogenic toxicity. Agricultural activities have resulted in numerous arsenic contaminated sites worldwide. Phytoremediation, a plant-based green technology, has been successfully used to remove a variety of contaminants from soils, except for arsenic. We have recently discovered the first-known arsenic hyperaccumulating plant, Chinese Brake fern (Pteris vitatta), which has great potential for remediating arsenic-contaminated land (Ma et al. 2001. Nature. 409:579). The information obtained from this current research will be critical for selecting the most efficient arsenic hyperaccumulating plant to clean up arsenic contaminated soils. The results will further our understanding on the feasibility of applying a plant-based remediation technology to contaminated soils in the tropics and subtropics. Successful completion of this proposed research should have significant impacts on the
long-term improvement in and sustainability of US agriculture due to the well-publicized adverse environmental impacts of widespread arsenic contamination in agricultural soils. The objectives for this research include: (1). investigating the effectiveness of Chinese Brake fern in continuously removing arsenic from soils its impacts on arsenic availability in soils, (2). determining if all Brake ferns in the tropics and subtropics are equally effective for phytoremediating arsenic contaminated soils, and (3) screening additional ferns in the tropics and subtropics for their capability in hyperaccumulating arsenic from soils. During the past two years, we have made much progresses. I have successfully recruited a full-time Ph.D student Maria Gonzaga and a part-time post-doctoral scientist Dr. M. Srivastava to work on the project. Maria has started the experiment addressing objective 1. She has harvested the plant after growing in various arsenic contaminated soils for several months
and is in the process of analyzing the soil and plant samples. This experiment will be continued for at least two years. In addition, Dr. Srivastava has successfully completed two screening studies to address objectives 2 and 3. After exposing arsenic to different ferns for up to two weeks, he has harvested the plants and is in the process of data analysis.
Impacts
Results from our research should be useful for implementing phytoremediation technology to clean up arsenic contaminated soils in tropical and subtropical areas.
Publications
- Gonzaga, M. I. S., J. A. G. Santos, L. Q. Ma, and N. B. Comerford. 2003. Root characteristic and arsenic uptake of As hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata L. and non accumulator Nephrolepis exaltata L. Plant Soil. In review.
- Luongo, L. and L.Q. Ma. 2003. Characteristics of arsenic accumulation by Pteris and non Pteris ferns. Environment Pollution. To be submitted.
- Srivastava, M. and L.Q. Ma. 2003. Screening of arsenic accumulations by different ferns. To be prepared.
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