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POTENTIAL OF EUCALYPTUS CAMALDULENSIS FOR PHYTOSTABILIZATION AND BIOMONITORING OF TRACE-ELEMENT CONTAMINATED SOILS
Madejon, P., T. Maranon, C.M. Navarro-Fernandez, M.T. Dominguez, J.M. Alegre, B. Robinson, and J.M. Murillo. PLoS ONE 12(6):e0180240(2017)

In a study of the use of trees to immobilize trace metals (phytostabilization), researchers investigated the chemical composition of leaves and flower buds of Eucalyptus camaldulensis in seven sites along the Guadiamar River valley (SW Spain), an area contaminated by a mine spill in 1998. E. camaldulensis trees in the spill-affected area and adjacent non affected areas were growing on a variety of soils with pH from 5.6 to 8.1 at low concentration of plant nutrients. The spill-affected soils contained up to 1069 mg/kg As and 4086 mg/kg Pb. E. camaldulensis tolerated elevated trace metal concentrations in soil and had low trace metal concentrations in the aerial portions compared to other species growing in the same environment. Despite the relatively low concentration of trace metals in leaves, they were significantly correlated with the soil-extractable Cd, Mn, and Zn, but not Cu and Pb. This tree species generally is tolerant of impoverished and contaminated soils, grows fast, has a deep root system, and is suitable for phytostabilization of soils contaminated by trace metals owing to the low transfer of metals from soil to aboveground organs. Eucalyptus leaves also could be used for biomonitoring the soil extractability of Cd, Mn, and Zn (but not Cu or Pb). This paper is Open Access at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180240.



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