Lead and zinc determinations in Festuca arundinacea and Cynodon dactylon collected from contaminated soils in Tandil (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina)

ALBORNOZ, CAROLINA B; LARSEN, KAREN E.; ROBERTO LANDA; QUIROGA, MIGUEL A; NAJLE, ROBERTO; MARCOVECCHIO, JORGE

Environmental Earth Sciences

Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2016

1866-6280

Heavy metal soil contamination is one of themost serious environmental problems, considering boththeir persistence and progressive accumulation whichmakes possible the transference to other systems, and couldpotentially affect human health and ecosystems functioning.The total concentration of lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) insoil and plant samples from Festuca arundinacea andCynodon dactylon naturally developed (in situ) and withinexperimentally contaminated soils (ex situ) was measured.Pb and Zn obtained results showed that the average valuesin industrial soils were significantly higher (p�.0001)than those corresponding to controls values (472 % morefor Pb and 288 % more for Zn). There was a positivesignificant correlation between Pb levels in soil and roots(r = 0.99) and leaves (r = 0.98) of C. dactylon, andbetween Zn levels in soil and roots (r = 0.94) and leaves(r = 0.91) of C. dactylon. Festuca arundinacea plantswere experimentally exposed to Pb-contaminated soilduring different times (0, 5 and 10 days). Two indicatorswere calculated: the bioaccumulation factor (BCF) andtranslocation factor (TF). Five day BCF was 0.25, while for10 days one was 0.72. This showed that the value of BCFvaried according to the exposure time, and F. arundinaceashowed to be highly tolerant to Pb species. TF was low (T1:0.18 and T2: 0.09) because the higher accumulationoccurred in roots. Considering that roots of F. arundinaceaand C. dactylon were their largest metals reservoir, theycould be used as indicators of metal contamination withinsoils.