EXTRACTING AND TRANSPIRING METALS FROM CONTAMINATED SOILS

Jenna Forte, Megan Corley, Sam Mutiti, and Alyssa Thomson

Georgia College and State University, 145 South Irwin Street Apt. #2315 Milledgeville, GA 31061, USA

Abstract

Certain plants are known to take up heavy metals directly from the soil through their roots and into their leaves. There are no studies in the literature on whether these plants are able to transpire these contaminants once they get to the leaves. This study, therefore, investigates the ability of common hyperaccumulators of heavy metals, Hydrangea paniculata and Tithonia rotundifolia, to translocate heavy metals from the soil through the plant to the atmosphere. The metals of choice were copper and lead. At the end of the growth period both translocation and enrichment factors will be calculated. In a preliminary study, 10 pots of Tithonia diversifolia were watered with 1000 ppm copper solution, and 10 pots were watered with 1000 ppm lead nitrate solution for four weeks. A fully grown Hydrangea plant was also watered with 1000ppm copper solution for one week. During this time, transpiration was collected from all T. diversifolia plants and from three branches on the Hydrangea plant. Transpiration from T. diversifolia showed a copper concentration presence of 0.04 mg/L and 0.005 mg/L for lead. The transpiration collected from the three Hydrangea branches had of 0.026 mg/L copper.