Heavy metal accumulation and phytostabilization potential of dominant plant species growing on manganese mine tailings

Abstract

Screening plants that are hypertolerant to and excluders of certain heavy metals plays a fundamental role in a remediation strategy for metalliferous mine tailings. A field survey of terrestrial higher plants growing on Mn mine tailings at Huayuan, Hunan Province, China was conducted to identify candidate species for application in phytostabilization of the tailings in this region. In total, 51 species belonging to 21 families were recorded and the 12 dominant plants were investigated for their potential in phytostabilization of heavy metals. Eight plant species, Alternanthera philoxeroides, Artemisia princeps, Bidens frondosa, Bidens pilosa, Cynodon dactylon, Digitaria sanguinalis, Erigeron canadensis, and Setaria plicata accumulated much lower concentrations of heavy metals in shoots and roots than the associated soils and bioconcentration factors (BFs) for Cd, Mn, Pb and Zn were all<1, demonstrating a high tolerance to heavy metals and poor metals translocation ability. The field investigation also found that these species grew fast, accumulated biomass rapidly and developed a vegetation cover in a relatively short time. Therefore, they are good candidates for phytostabilization purposes and could be used as pioneer species in phytoremediation of Mn mine tailings in this region of South China.

Keywords

Mn mine tailings / heavy metal accumulation / phytostabilization

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41101532), Hunan Natural Science Foundation (No. 12JJ3036), Science and Technology Project of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous District (Zhouke [2011] 42), and Key Laboratory of Ecology of Rare and Endangered Species and Environmental Protection (Guangxi Normal University), Ministry of Education, China (Guikeneng 1002k003). We thank Professor AJM Baker (Universities of Melbourne and Queensland, Australia, and Sheffield, UK) for improving the final version of this paper.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg