Phytoremediation Potential of Macrophytes of Urban Waterbodies in Central India

摘要

Background. India’s rapidly increasing population and growing urbanization pose a greatchallenge for wastewater treatment efforts, leading to increased pollution of surroundingwaterbodies.Objectives. A field sampling-based study was conducted to analyze water quality, heavymetals and bioconcentration and bioaccumulation in the roots and shoots of naturallygrowing vegetation in an urban lake, Laxmi Taal. The lake receives domestic sewage fromJhansi city in Central India.Methods. Temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, turbidity, and water-soluble ions weremeasured with appropriate instruments. Plant accumulation of metals was measured with thebioconcentration factor (BCF), the ratio of metal concentration in the root to wastewater. Thetranslocation factor (TF) was estimated as the ratio of metal concentration in the shoot to theroot.Results. Water quality and heavy metal concentrations were found to be within the prescribedlimit as per Indian standards IS-2296 “D”. In the present study, BCF was assessed to be 1and the plants Typha angustifolia and Echhornia crassipus were determined to be accumulatorplants. The TF study revealed that translocation of all the metals studied were significant,except for manganese (Mn), where concentration was found to be below detection limit.Conclusions. The present study validated that Typha angustifolia and Echhornia crassipuscould be used for bioremediation purposes in cases of urban waterbodies receiving varyingamounts of domestic wastewaters which have relatively limited concentrations of toxicmetals.Competing Interests. The authors declare no competing financial interests.