Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2008
Proceedings of Taal2007: The 12th World Lake Conference: 1028-1038
ABSTRACT
General contamination of heavy metals in the environment is a major global concern, which has provoked
the emergence of phytoremediation technologies for cleaning aquatic environment. Heavy metals are
released into the environment from a wide range of natural and anthropogenic sources. Macrophytes are
known as good indicators of heavy metal contamination in aquatic ecosystems and they act as biological
filters by accumulating heavy metals from the surrounding environments. Concentrations of heavy metals
such as Hg, Cd, Co, Cu, Mo, Ni, Pb, Tl and Zn were measured in macrophytes and water samples from
the mouth of five rivers namely; Gavaraget, Argichi, Makenis, Masrik each of them meeting the Lake
Sevan, Armenia. The collected plants were Batrachium rionii, Myosotis palustris, Lythrum salicaria,
Scrophularia alata, Calamagrostis epigeios, Lepidium latifolium, Glyceria plicata, Veronica anagallisaquatica, Butomus umbellatus, Sparganium erectum. The highest concentration of Ni (5.5 mg/kg) was
observed in Glyceria plicata whereas concentrations (mg/kg) of all other metals were highest (Hg, 0.02;
Cd, 0.46; Co, 3; Cu, 18.9; Pb, 6.9; Tl, 0.13 and Zn, 113) in Batrachium rionii. Range and trend in
concentrations of Co (<0.5g/l), Cd (<0.5g/l), Tl (<0.1g/l) and Hg (<0.3g/l) in water samples were
similar at all the sites. Occurrence of heavy metals was much higher in macrophytes and water from
Gavaraget and Masrik than that of the Argichi and Makenis due to the discharge of sewage into the river
Gavaraget and industrial wastewaters into the river Masrik. The fact that the concentrations of different
heavy metals in these macrophytes were far higher than in their respective water column indicates to their
role in the biogeochemical cycles of heavy metals. This study aimed at understanding the importance of
macrophytes in accumulation of heavy metals and suggesting remedial measures for the preservation and
restoration of the lake ecosystem.
Keywords: phytoremediation, bioaccumulation, pollution, rivers, freshwater.
INTRUDUCTION
Contamination of soils, groundwater, sediments,
surface water and air with trace metals is one of the
major environmental problems. Aquatic systems
often act as final receptacles to these metals whose
concentration in interstitial waters might increase
several thousand folds by effluents from wastes
(Bastian and Hammer 1993). Heavy metals are the
stable metals or metalloids whose density is greater
than 5 g/cm3; namely, mercury, cadmium, cobalt,
lead, molybdenum, nickel, copper, zinc etc. (Nies
1999). Heavy metals are natural constituents of the
Earth's crust. They are stable and cannot be degraded
or destroyed, and therefore they tend to accumulate in
soils, water and sediments. However, human
activities have drastically altered the biochemical and
geochemical cycles and balance of some heavy
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Name
Family
Batrachium rionii
(Lagger.) Nym.
Myosotis palustris
Lam.
Lythrum salicaria
L.
Scrophularia alata
Gilib.
Calamagrostis
epigeios (L.) Roth.
Lepidium
latifolium L.
Glyceria plicata
Fries.
Veronica
anagallis-aquatica
L.
Sparganium
erectum L.
Butomus
umbellatus L.
Ranunculaceae
Sampling
site
C
Boraginaceae
Lythraceae
Scrophulariaceae
Poaceae
Brassicaceae
Gramineae
Scrophulariaceae
Sparganiaceae
Butomaceae
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
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Gavaraget
7.25
Argichi
7.6
Makenis
7.8
Masrik
7.95
158.5
98.6
92
171.3
26.4
12.5
13.3
17.4
23.7
20.8
18.6
30.4
18.4
9.6
9.3
18.4
28.2
21.5
22.3
26.3
259
165
157
267
0.29
0.15
0.05
0.14
0.008
0.005
0.002
0.009
2.86
1.86
1.12
2.63
3.16
2.02
1.18
2.8
0.26
0.11
0.08
0.14
3.83
3.51
2.2
3.65
Masrik
Argichi
Makenis
Gavaraget
Heavy
metals*
Cd
Co
Pb
Tl
Zn
Hg
<0.5
<0.5
<0.5
<0.1
<5
<0.3
<0.5
<0.5
<0.5
<0.1
5
<0.3
<0.5
<0.5
<0.5
<0.1
<5
<0.3
<0.5
<0.5
1.3
<0.1
34.6
<0.3
*Concentration in g/l
Plants
Analyses of metal accumulation in plants have
practical values in outlining ore deposits of variety of
metals and also in making of new discovery. The
concentration of heavy metals in 10 aquatic
macrophytes from Lake Sevan is shown in Fig.s 3-5.
The present study has greater significance; especially
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was carried out as a part of the SEMIS
international project, funded by the Volkswagen
Foundation.
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