Accumulation of Heavy Metals in Soil and Uptake by Plants Species with Phytoremediation Potential

Contamination of heavy metals represents one of the most pressing threats to water and soil resources, as well as human health. Phytoremediation can be potentially used to remediate metal contaminated sites. In this study, concentrations of copper, zinc, iron and magnesiurk accumulated by native plant species were determined in field conditions of Hame Kasi iron and copper mine in the central part of Iran in Hamadan province. The results showed that metal accumulation by plants differed among species and tissue bodies. Species grown in substrata with elevated metals contained significantly higher metals in plants. Metals accumulated by plants were mostly distributed in root tissues, suggesting that an exclusion strategy for metal tolerance exists widely amongst them. The mentioned species could accumulate relatively higher metal concentrations; far above the toxic concentration in the plant shoots. With high translocation factor, metal concentration ratio of plant shoots to roots indicates internal detoxification metal tolerance mechanism, thus, they have potential for phytoextraction. The factors affecting metal accumulation by plant species including metal concentrations, pH, EC and nutrient status in substrata were measured. Mostly, concentrations ofzinc and copper in both aboveground and underground tissues ofthe plants were significantly positively related to their total,in substrata while iron, zinc and copper were negatively correlated to soil phosphorus.