SOIL CONTAMINATION How to Grow on Heavy Metal Contaminated Soil

M. Pogrzeba, J. Krzyżak, A. Sas-Nowosielska

Department of Environmental Biotechnology, Phytoremediation Team, Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas (IETU), 6 Kossutha Street, 40-833 Katowice, Poland, [email protected]

Abstract Usage of provides the largest reduction of carbon dioxide emission when it replaces hard coal and lignite, which are the most carbon-intensive fuels. In Poland, coal is the dominant fuel for heat and electricity production. Replacing coal with biomass usually reduces the emission of sulphur dioxide. Till 2014 agriculture should give 60% of total biomass used for heating and electricity. Thus within the next years Polish agriculture has to develop coop- eratively in scope of food production on the high quality lands and energy biomass production on low quality lands. The limits for metal concentration in soils designated for energy crop pro- duction and in biomass collected for these purpose should be a key point to consider by the appropriate decision-makers. Identification of safe ways for crop management should also be assessed. This includes implementation of soil remediation techniques and adequate water supply, which is necessary for most energy crops (i.e. ). Appropriate water supple- mentation can be achieved using geocomposites. The main goal of presented study was to reveal the relation between soil contamination and heavy metals accumulation in energy crop biomass and show possible ways for diminish- ing metals uptake by . Key words: energy crops, heavy metals, Miscanthus gigantheus , geocomposites

Introduction heavy metals (especially Cd) in combustion It has been shown that the most effi- residues (Dembiras, 2005) is the other issue. cient way for energy crop production is to The group of energy crops have taken grow plants on medium or low quality agricul- into consideration in Poland includes native tural land. According to Ericsson et al., and foreign species such as dendriform (2006), it is particularly true for Poland where species with rapid rotation (willow-Salix sp.), relatively large percentage of the total area perennial dicotyledonous plants (e.g. virginia (59%) is occupy by agricultural land. However fanpetals-Sida hermaphrodita, cup plant- Sil- in Poland arable land is also situated in con- phium perfoliatum) and perennial grass taminated region, unsuitable for food produc- species: big blustem ( gerardi ), tion (Kucharski et al., 1994). miscanthus ( Miscanthus giganteus, M. sac- About 60% of total biomass used for chariflorus, M. sinensis ), switchgrass ( Pan- heating and electricity should be provided by icum virgatum ), reed canarygrass ( Phalaris agriculture sector till 2014. Within the next arundinacea ), eastern cordgrass ( Spartina years, agriculture in Poland has to combine pectinata ) (Majtkowski, 2007; Abassi and food production on the high quality lands Abbassi, 2010). Among the above mentioned with energy biomass production on barren or plants Miscanthus sp. gives the highest crop contaminated lands. yield, caloric value and energy yield per In Silesian Voivodeship, 5 to 10% of hectare (Lewandowski et al., 2000; agricultural soils are contaminated with cad- McKendry, 2002). mium, lead and zinc (Siebielec et al., 2008). The goal of presented study was to This contamination is the legacy of mining reveal the relation between soil contamina- and smelting industry of Zn, Pb and Cd ores tion and heavy metals accumulation in ener- located in these regions (Kucharski et al., gy crop biomass and show possible ways for 1994). Cultivation of energy crops on con- diminishing metals uptake by plants. taminated agricultural areas might lead to excess of metals in plant tissues and reemis- Materials and Methods sions of contaminants into the atmosphere The experimental plot with M. gigan- during biomass improper combustion. Envi- theus was performed on contaminated arable ronmental risk resulting from high content of land located in Bytom (southern part of Poland, Silesian Voivodeship). Experimental

676 15 th ICHMET SOIL CONTAMINATION plots were established in the near proximity tively coupled plasma-atomic emission spec- of a closed-down lead/zinc/cadmium ore trometry (ICP-AES) (Varian, USA). Data mining and processing plant. The metallur- reported in this paper was processed using gical complex was in operation for more than the computer software Microsoft Excel and 100 years and had significant impact on Statistica for Windows (Statistica'99). A local soils. Recently the land was used for probability of 0.05 or less was considered to grain crops production (especially be statistically significant. farming). The experimental field (0,25ha) was Results and Discussion divided into subplots (4x4 meters) with Physical and chemical soil properties buffer zone of 6m. The soil was tilled to the are presented in Table 1. The soil was classi- depth of 20 cm and 50 seedlings of Miscant- fied as silty-clay loam. Heavy metals concen- hus sp. per subplot were planted (Figure 1). tration in soil exceeded Polish limits for arable soil (Ministry of Environment, 2002). The pH was almost neutral, followed by high concentration of organic matter (OM) and low electric conductivity (EC). Bioavailable forms of cadmium were high (5.76%), whereas bioavailability of Pb was relatively low (0.07%; Tab.1).

Table 1. The soil characteristic

Figure 1. View of Miscanthus gigantheus experimental plots in 'Bytom site'.

The experiment was performed during three growing seasons (2007-2009). For site characterization three composite soil sam- ples per subplot (from the depth of 0-25cm) were taken and analyzed. At the end of each growing season shoot samples of Miscant- hus sp. were collected. Due to low biomass, shoots collected in the first growing season Values represent mean of three replicates samples ± SE. were omitted during analytical process. a - extraction with 0.01 M CaCl 2. To assess origin of heavy metals (plant b- In parentheses percentages of total metal concentra- uptake from the soil/air deposited pollution) tion is presented. plants were collected in the end of the second and the third growing season and divided Concentration of metals in M.gigan- into two parts. One part was washed in an theus shoots collected in the second growing ultrasonic washer with tap water. The sec- season were in the range between 83.2 mg ond one remained unwashed. kg -1 and 196.4 mg kg -1 for Pb, 2.94 mg kg -1 Physical and chemical soil properties and 4.74 mg kg -1 for Cd and 323.7 mg kg -1 such us: granulometric analysis, pH, EC, and 488.4 mg kg -1 for Zn. In the end of sec- organic matter, total metal concentration ond growing season metal concentrations (aqua regia extraction) and bioavailable were two times higher then in the third (Fig 2). metal concentration (CaCl 2 extraction) were It may be related to the higher level of metal analyzed using standard methods. concentration in bioavailable soil fraction Plant samples were dried at 70 oC. when compare to the next, third growing Dried plant material was digested using con- season. centrated nitric acid in a microwave system Differences between Pb concentrations (MDS 2000, CEM, USA). Concentration of in plant tissues resulting from direct uptake metals both in soil and plants was measured from the soil as well as from air deposited with flame atomic absorption spectropho- pollution were statistically significant (sec- tometry (Varian Spectra AA300) or by induc- ond growing season; Fig. 2a).

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Lead concentration in plants was strongly influenced by air deposited pollution and shown about 50% increase then when only considering uptake from the soil. Correlation for cadmium (Fig. 2b) and zinc (Fig. 2c) was not statistically significant. Moreover, such a high Pb contamination within and on plants may result in air pollution when combusted (Pogrzeba et al., 2010). As the solution of the problem an appropriate soil treat- ment for decreasing concentra- tion of bioavailable form of met- als should be suggested. Such change of soil features may be achieved by using chemical amendments such as phosphates (Kucharski et al., 2005, Pogrzeba, 2010; Sas-Nowosielska et al., 2010), lime (Siebielec, 2007; Pogrzeba, 2009) or organic mat- ter (Pogrzeba, 2009; Krzyżak, 2010). M. gigantheus has relatively high water use efficiency (Lewandowski, 2000; El Bassam, 2010) what is prerequisite for gaining appropriate crop bio- mass. Ongoing experiments on developing a material to retain rainwater in the ground may help plants to vegetate in bad condi- tions (Orzeszyna et al., 2006). The water absorbing geocompos- ites - an innovative technology to support plant vegetation, are evaluated due to Innovative Economy Operational Pro- gramme (2007-2013). The geo- composite contains a superab- sorbent safe for plants, which in water environment swells and becomes a gel.

Figure 2. Metal plant uptake vs metal plant uptake + air deposited pollution for Miscanthus giganteus: a) Pb (mg kg -1 d.w.); b) Cd (mg kg -1 d.w.); c) Zn (mg kg -1 d.w.).

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