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Plants from the abandoned Nacozari mine tailings: evaluation of their phytostabilization potential

Phytostabilization is a remediation technology that uses plants for in-situ stabilization of contamination in soils and mine tailings. The objective of this study was to identify native plant species with potential for phytostabilization of the abandoned mine tailings in Nacozari, Sonora in northern...

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Autores principales: Santos, Alina E., Cruz-Ortega, Rocio, Meza-Figueroa, Diana, Romero, Francisco M., Sanchez-Escalante, Jose Jesus, Maier, Raina M., Neilson, Julia W., Alcaraz, Luis David, Molina Freaner, Francisco E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5420198/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28484675
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3280
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author Santos, Alina E.
Cruz-Ortega, Rocio
Meza-Figueroa, Diana
Romero, Francisco M.
Sanchez-Escalante, Jose Jesus
Maier, Raina M.
Neilson, Julia W.
Alcaraz, Luis David
Molina Freaner, Francisco E.
author_facet Santos, Alina E.
Cruz-Ortega, Rocio
Meza-Figueroa, Diana
Romero, Francisco M.
Sanchez-Escalante, Jose Jesus
Maier, Raina M.
Neilson, Julia W.
Alcaraz, Luis David
Molina Freaner, Francisco E.
author_sort Santos, Alina E.
collection PubMed
description Phytostabilization is a remediation technology that uses plants for in-situ stabilization of contamination in soils and mine tailings. The objective of this study was to identify native plant species with potential for phytostabilization of the abandoned mine tailings in Nacozari, Sonora in northern Mexico. A flora of 42 species in 16 families of angiosperms was recorded on the tailings site and the abundance of the most common perennial species was estimated. Four of the five abundant perennial species showed evidence of regeneration: the ability to reproduce and establish new seedlings. A comparison of selected physicochemical properties of the tailings in vegetated patches with adjacent barren areas suggests that pH, electrical conductivity, texture, and concentration of potentially toxic elements do not limit plant distribution. For the most abundant species, the accumulation factor for most metals was <1, with the exception of Zn in two species. A short-term experiment on adaptation revealed limited evidence for the formation of local ecotypes in Prosopis velutina and Amaranthus watsonii. Overall, the results of this study indicate that five native plant species might have potential for phytostabilization of the Nacozari tailings and that seed could be collected locally to revegetate the site. More broadly, this study provides a methodology that can be used to identify native plants and evaluate their phytostabilization potential for similar mine tailings.
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spelling pubmed-54201982017-05-08 Plants from the abandoned Nacozari mine tailings: evaluation of their phytostabilization potential Santos, Alina E. Cruz-Ortega, Rocio Meza-Figueroa, Diana Romero, Francisco M. Sanchez-Escalante, Jose Jesus Maier, Raina M. Neilson, Julia W. Alcaraz, Luis David Molina Freaner, Francisco E. PeerJ Ecology Phytostabilization is a remediation technology that uses plants for in-situ stabilization of contamination in soils and mine tailings. The objective of this study was to identify native plant species with potential for phytostabilization of the abandoned mine tailings in Nacozari, Sonora in northern Mexico. A flora of 42 species in 16 families of angiosperms was recorded on the tailings site and the abundance of the most common perennial species was estimated. Four of the five abundant perennial species showed evidence of regeneration: the ability to reproduce and establish new seedlings. A comparison of selected physicochemical properties of the tailings in vegetated patches with adjacent barren areas suggests that pH, electrical conductivity, texture, and concentration of potentially toxic elements do not limit plant distribution. For the most abundant species, the accumulation factor for most metals was <1, with the exception of Zn in two species. A short-term experiment on adaptation revealed limited evidence for the formation of local ecotypes in Prosopis velutina and Amaranthus watsonii. Overall, the results of this study indicate that five native plant species might have potential for phytostabilization of the Nacozari tailings and that seed could be collected locally to revegetate the site. More broadly, this study provides a methodology that can be used to identify native plants and evaluate their phytostabilization potential for similar mine tailings. PeerJ Inc. 2017-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC5420198/ /pubmed/28484675 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3280 Text en ©2017 Santos et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Ecology
Santos, Alina E.
Cruz-Ortega, Rocio
Meza-Figueroa, Diana
Romero, Francisco M.
Sanchez-Escalante, Jose Jesus
Maier, Raina M.
Neilson, Julia W.
Alcaraz, Luis David
Molina Freaner, Francisco E.
Plants from the abandoned Nacozari mine tailings: evaluation of their phytostabilization potential
title Plants from the abandoned Nacozari mine tailings: evaluation of their phytostabilization potential
title_full Plants from the abandoned Nacozari mine tailings: evaluation of their phytostabilization potential
title_fullStr Plants from the abandoned Nacozari mine tailings: evaluation of their phytostabilization potential
title_full_unstemmed Plants from the abandoned Nacozari mine tailings: evaluation of their phytostabilization potential
title_short Plants from the abandoned Nacozari mine tailings: evaluation of their phytostabilization potential
title_sort plants from the abandoned nacozari mine tailings: evaluation of their phytostabilization potential
topic Ecology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5420198/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28484675
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3280
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