DOI: 10.5176/2251-189X_SEES17.10
Authors: Laleh Roomiani, Sara Nikbakht and Abolfazl Askary Sary
Abstract: Environmental pollution by heavy metals has become a serious problem in the world. The use of aquatic macrophytes, such as Phragmites australis with hyper accumulating ability is known to be an environmentally friendly option to restore polluted aquatic resources. The ability for usage of P. australis in removal of Cd, As, Pb and As from fish culture ponds (Khuzestan Province, Iran) was examined. Three sampling points were selected (inlet water, pond, outlet water). Pb showed the highest concentrations in roots of P. australis and sediment, but Hg was the least bioaccumulatiom metal in all sampling points. Results showed that the concentrations of heavy metals in the outlet (sediment and water) were much higher than the inlet. The highest concentrations of As, Pb, Cd and Hg were found in the roots of P. australis, reaching 856.21, 1836.00, 784.20 and 163.78 ppb, in outlet water. In pond, the highest concentrations of metals related to As. Positive linear relationships were found between heavy metal concentrations in the roots of plant and those in water and sediment, thus indicating the potential use of such organs for pollution monitoring of water and sediment. The high uptake of Pb showed that heavy metals are one of the main health hazards of the study area. P.australis showed a direct response to the environmental conditions, and its application as abiomonitor should be considered.
Keywords: Phragmites australis; heavy metals; fish culture pond; Iran
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