USING OF SOME AGRICULTURAL PLANT SPECIES FOR THE DECONTAMINATION OF HEAVY METALS AND RADIONUCLIDES IN THE ENVIRONMENT

Boris Sorochinsky*, Dmitro Grodzinsky (Institute of Cell Biology and Genetic Engineering, 148 Zabolotnogo St., Kyiv, 03143, UKRAINE), Slavik Dushenkov (Biotech Center, Rutgers University, 59 Dudley road, NJ 0901-8520,USA)

The decontamination of soils and aquatic systems polluted with heavy metals and radionuclides seems to be one of the most important environmental problem. A number of different methods were developed for these aim. We have examined the efficiency of some ‘classic’ phytoremediation technologies based on already existing high accumulation ability of some plant species. There is specially selected list of the potentially ‘hyperaccumulated’ plant species (mainly wild plant species) which may by applied for the phytoremediation tasks . One must remember that such plants were selected mainly at the laboratory during hydroponic experiments and may not demonstrate this property during the real field trial. That is why we have examined a number of common used agricultural plant species and follow are some lessons of our study:

i.The phytoextraction has a limited application because it’s efficiency depend on bioavaliability of the pollutant, it’s chemical feature, biomass of selected plant species ets.

ii. Leaching experiments with a number of different chemical compound did not increase sufficiently the level of the heavy metals and radionuclides transported into plants. Inoculation of the experimental plants with mycorrhizal fungi seems to be most effective and accessible treatment for the increasing of phytoextraction efficiency.

iii.The rhizofiltration technology is too effective approach for the removal of the pollutants from the contaminated aquatic systems

iv. Soils stabilisation with woody plants may be effectively used for the prevention of vertical and horizontal migration of pollutants at soil complex especially in some selected critical landscapes.