Phytoremediation of arsenic-does it work?

摘要

Several sites on our earth are elevated in arsenic (As) concentration due to high background levels or anthropogenic pollution of As. At site, water and/or soil can be high in As, most commonly present in the form of arsenite or arsenate. Both soil and water are possible to remediate from various toxic elements, such as cadmium using plants by phytoremediation. The aim of this paper is to address the question whether phytoremediation might be possible also for arsenic. Results show that one may remove arsenic using some species of submerged plants and ferns, while the phytoremediation method to stabilize arsenic in the soil to avoid leakage is more difficult and it may need some additional amendments to function.