Zinc, lead and cadmium tolerance, uptake and accumulation by the common reed, Phragmites australis (Cav.) trin. ex steudel

Z. H. Ye, A. J.M. Baker*, Ming Hung WONG, A. J. Willis

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

182 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Zinc (Zn), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) tolerance in populations of seedlings of Phragmites australis raised from seeds collected from a mine site (Plombieres, Belgium) contaminated with Zn, Pb and Cd and three 'clean' sites (Felixstowe, UK; Wisbech, UK; and Mai Po, Hong Kong) were studied under glasshouse conditions. Small differences were found between the metal-contaminated population and the three 'clean' populations when seedlings were grown in 1.0 μg ml-1 Zn and 100 μg ml-1 Pb treatment solutions. In general, however, different populations of seedlings showed similar growth responses, metal uptake and indices of Zn, Pb and Cd tolerance when cultured in the same metal-contaminated media for 89 d or in the same metal treatment solutions (ZnSO4: 1.0 and 4.0 μg ml-1 Zn; Pb(NO3)2:10.0 and 25.0 μg ml-1 Pb; CdSO4: 0.5 and 1.0 μg ml-1 Cd) for 3 weeks. There was insufficient evidence to support the hypothesis that the metal-contaminated population has evolved to a Zn-, Pb- or Cd-tolerant ecotype but the results indicated some differentiation between the populations with that from Hong Kong being the least productive under the experimental conditions used. The implications of the findings on selection of provenances for use in constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)363-370
Number of pages8
JournalAnnals of Botany
Volume80
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 1997

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Plant Science

User-Defined Keywords

  • Heavy metal tolerance
  • Metal accumulation
  • Phragmites australis
  • Population differentiation

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