Evaluation of Native Ohio Plants to Lead and Zinc Contaminated Soils

Abstract

Phytoremediation has been acknowledged for quite some time now, as a viable alternative to traditional, more invasive, remediation practices. However, there is a large demand for research relating to the association between specific plants and metal contaminants. The objective to this research is to identify native plants capable of removing or tolerating metal contaminants in soils. Two native Ohio plants commonly found in wet habitat will be evaluated for tolerance and accumulation of zinc and lead. The soil was spiked with two metals, lead and zinc, commonly found along riverbanks in the local area around the Mahoning River. The plants were grown in single metal as well as mixed metal spiked soil for a period of 15 weeks. Once the plants have grown substantially, they were harvested, dried and processed for analysis. The concentrations of metals found in the root area of the soil samples were compared to the spiked soil samples before growth. Both Indian grass and Canada wildrye soil samples showed losses of available metals, with small amounts of metals found in the plant tissue. This indicates that, even though there was limited above ground plant growth, both species may be tolerable to soils containing various concentrations of zinc and lead.