Phytoremediation: A Promising Approach for Re-vegetation of Cadmium-Polluted Land
Cadmium from human activities accumulates in soils, posing health risks and harming plants by disrupting nutrient uptake, inducing oxidative damage, and limiting growth. This chapter reviews Cd sources, plant uptake, and highlights phytoremediation—using tolerant and hyperaccumulator plants—as a sustainable clean-up strategy.
Subject Tags
- Physical Sciences
- Soils
- Health
Abstract
Cadmium (Cd), a non-essential trace element for plants, is commonly found in the environment due to human activities such as waste disposal, mining, metal manufacturing, and the use of synthetic phosphate fertilizers. These activities contribute to the accumulation of Cd in the soil, posing a carcinogenic risk to human health. In plants, Cd toxicity has detrimental effects on nutrient and water uptake, leading to deficiencies in essential elements. It also induces oxidative damage in plants, disrupts plant metabolism, and inhibits overall plant growth and physiological processes. In this chapter, we described the various sources of Cd contamination, the mechanisms of Cd uptake and translocation in plants, and its toxic effects on plant growth and physiology. Among different remediation approaches for Cd toxicity in soil, phytoremediation is one of the most promising and likely the one that has spurred the greatest interest over the last 10 years. This approach involves using plants to extract, stabilize, and degrade contaminants accumulated in soil, thereby reducing their concentration. Over the past several years, various plants have been studied for their effectiveness in Cd phytoremediation. Some plants, known as hyperaccumulators, have a natural ability to take up high concentrations of heavy metals in soils, including Cd, without significant damage to their growth and development. These hyperaccumulator plants show potential for Cd phytoextraction, where the metal is absorbed by the plant’s roots and translocated to the above-ground parts. Besides hyperaccumulator plants, other species have been investigated for their ability to enhance Cd phytoremediation through various mechanisms. For example, certain plants can enhance the bioavailability of Cd in the soil by releasing organic acids or enzymes that solubilize or chelate the metal, making it more accessible for plant uptake. This chapter summarizes the use of different plant species in Cd phytoremediation, highlighting their bioaccumulation capacities, biomass production, and Cd tolerance. It also discusses various approaches that have recently been investigated to enhance the effectiveness of phytoremediation. These findings contribute to the development of sustainable and eco-friendly strategies for Cd remediation in contaminated soils.
Citation
AL-Huqail, A.A., Seleiman, M.F., Aljabri, M., Ahmad, A., Alotaibi, M. and Battaglia, M.L., 2024. Phytoremediation: a promising approach for re-vegetation of Cadmium-polluted land. In Cadmium toxicity mitigation (pp. 215-242). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47390-6
TNC Authors
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Martin L. Battaglia
The Nature Conservancy