Bioconcentration and translocation of heavy metals in the soil-plants system in Machangqing copper mine, Yunnan Province, China

Vegetation can indicate the heavy metals pollution of soils. To repair the soil environment, phytoremediation is a feasible way to make soil contaminant nontoxic. Through studying dominant vegetation in mining area to find suitable hyperaccumulators is the major point of phytoremediation research. In this paper, we determined the levels of soil contamination and study the heavy metal concentration of dominant plant (P. massoniana and P. yunnanensis) in Machangqing copper mine, Yunnan province, China. The extent of soil contamination was evaluated by calculating the Single factor pollution index (Pi) and Nemerow pollution index (N), The enrichment of heavy metals in P. massoniana and P. yunnanensis has also been investigated by chemical detection and electron microscope. The result shows that the main heavy metal pollutants in soil were Cu, Mo, Ag, Cr and Ni. Both P. massoniana and P. yunnanensis have strong enrichment in cadmium and they also have strong ability to translocate heavy metals from roots to leaves. The features P. massoniana and P. yunnanensis exhibit in cadmium accumulation and heavy metals transformation from soil to leaves are valuable for phytoremediation of environment pollution in mining area.