Pedosphere 19(2): 265--272, 2009
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2009 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
Removal of pyrene from contaminated soils by white clover
XU Sheng-You1,2,3, CHEN Ying-Xu1, LIN Kuang-Fei3, CHEN Xin-Cai1, LIN Qi1, LI Feng1 and WANG Zhao-Wei1
1 Department of Environmental Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029 (China). E-mail:shengyouxu22@yahoo.com.cn
2 College of Life and Environment, Huangshan University, Huangshan 245041 (China)
3 School of Resource and Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237 (China)
ABSTRACT
      Phytoremediation has been used as an emerging technology for remediation of soil contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), ubiquitous persistent environmental pollutants derived from natural and anthropogenic processes, in the last decade. In this study, a pot experiment was conducted to investigate the potential of phytoremediation of pyrene from spiked soils planted with white clover (Trifolium repens) in the greenhouse with a series of pyrene concentrations ranging from 4.22 to 365.38 mg kg-1. The results showed that growth of white clover on pyrenecontaminated soils was not affected. The removal of pyrene from the spiked soils planted with white clover was obviously higher than that from the unplanted soils. At the end of the experiment (60 d), the average removal ratio of pyrene in the spiked soils with white clover was 77%, which was 31% and 57% higher than those of the controls with or without micobes, respectively. Both roots and shoots of white clover took up pyrene from the spiked soils and pyrene uptake increased with the soil pyrene concentration. However, the plant-enhanced dissipation of soil pyrene may be the result of plant-promoted microbial degradation and direct uptake and accumulation of pyrene by white clover were only a small part of the pyrene dissipation. Bioconcentration factors of pyrene (BCFs, ratio of pyrene, on a dry weight basis, in the plant to that in the soil) tended to decrease with increase in the residual soil pyrene concentration. Therefore, removal of pyrene in the contaminated soils was feasible using white clove.
Key Words:  microbial degradation, phytoremediation, plant uptake and accumulation, pyrene, white clover
Citation: Xu, S. Y., Chen, Y. X., Lin, K. F., Chen, X. C., Lin, Q., Li, F. and Wang, Z. W. 2009. Removal of pyrene from contaminated soils by white clover. Pedosphere. 19(2): 265-272.
View Full Text



Copyright © 2024 Editorial Committee of PEDOSPHERE. All rights reserved.
Address: P. O. Box 821, 71 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210008, China    E-mail: pedosphere@issas.ac.cn
Technical support: Beijing E-Tiller Co.,Ltd.