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Phytoremediation and Nurse Potential of Aloe Plants on Mine Tailings

Mine tailings are a source of potentially toxic metals (PTMs) worldwide. Phytoremediation is a low-cost green technology that uses metal-tolerant plants to extract these contaminants and rehabilitate the soil. In mine tailing restoration efforts, it can be beneficial to introduce species that can fa...

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Autores principales: Marcelo-Silva, João, Ramabu, Masego, Siebert, Stefan John
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9866589/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36674276
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021521
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author Marcelo-Silva, João
Ramabu, Masego
Siebert, Stefan John
author_facet Marcelo-Silva, João
Ramabu, Masego
Siebert, Stefan John
author_sort Marcelo-Silva, João
collection PubMed
description Mine tailings are a source of potentially toxic metals (PTMs) worldwide. Phytoremediation is a low-cost green technology that uses metal-tolerant plants to extract these contaminants and rehabilitate the soil. In mine tailing restoration efforts, it can be beneficial to introduce species that can facilitate the colonization of other plants (i.e., nurse plant syndrome). In this study, the phytoremediation and nursing potential of two species adapted to metalliferous soil, Aloe burgersfortensis and A. castanea, were evaluated for the first time. An experiment was performed with aloe plants grown in pots containing potting soil, platinum tailings, and gold tailings. Leaves were assessed for bioaccumulation of PTMs. Seeds of Bermuda grass and African daisy, two successional pioneers, were planted with the aloes and had their developmental parameters evaluated after 30 days. Allelopathic effects were also assessed, with seeds of the pioneer plants infused with root extracts of the aloes from the different soil treatments. A. castanea demonstrated greater potential for the bioaccumulation of Cd, Co, Mn, Ni, and Zn in the tailings. The presence of aloes benefited germination rates, leaf count, length, and plant biomass of grasses and daisies in the mine tailings, without significant allelopathic effects. Therefore, aloes—especially A. castanea—should be employed in the rehabilitation of metal-contaminated soils to extract metals and to aid the establishment of other species to enhance the phytoremediation processes.
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spelling pubmed-98665892023-01-22 Phytoremediation and Nurse Potential of Aloe Plants on Mine Tailings Marcelo-Silva, João Ramabu, Masego Siebert, Stefan John Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Mine tailings are a source of potentially toxic metals (PTMs) worldwide. Phytoremediation is a low-cost green technology that uses metal-tolerant plants to extract these contaminants and rehabilitate the soil. In mine tailing restoration efforts, it can be beneficial to introduce species that can facilitate the colonization of other plants (i.e., nurse plant syndrome). In this study, the phytoremediation and nursing potential of two species adapted to metalliferous soil, Aloe burgersfortensis and A. castanea, were evaluated for the first time. An experiment was performed with aloe plants grown in pots containing potting soil, platinum tailings, and gold tailings. Leaves were assessed for bioaccumulation of PTMs. Seeds of Bermuda grass and African daisy, two successional pioneers, were planted with the aloes and had their developmental parameters evaluated after 30 days. Allelopathic effects were also assessed, with seeds of the pioneer plants infused with root extracts of the aloes from the different soil treatments. A. castanea demonstrated greater potential for the bioaccumulation of Cd, Co, Mn, Ni, and Zn in the tailings. The presence of aloes benefited germination rates, leaf count, length, and plant biomass of grasses and daisies in the mine tailings, without significant allelopathic effects. Therefore, aloes—especially A. castanea—should be employed in the rehabilitation of metal-contaminated soils to extract metals and to aid the establishment of other species to enhance the phytoremediation processes. MDPI 2023-01-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9866589/ /pubmed/36674276 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021521 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Marcelo-Silva, João
Ramabu, Masego
Siebert, Stefan John
Phytoremediation and Nurse Potential of Aloe Plants on Mine Tailings
title Phytoremediation and Nurse Potential of Aloe Plants on Mine Tailings
title_full Phytoremediation and Nurse Potential of Aloe Plants on Mine Tailings
title_fullStr Phytoremediation and Nurse Potential of Aloe Plants on Mine Tailings
title_full_unstemmed Phytoremediation and Nurse Potential of Aloe Plants on Mine Tailings
title_short Phytoremediation and Nurse Potential of Aloe Plants on Mine Tailings
title_sort phytoremediation and nurse potential of aloe plants on mine tailings
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9866589/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36674276
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021521
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