Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello
My kid is working on a science project to determine if certain varieties of plants can help decontaminate soil. This is based off of https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #procedure, but applied to contamination resulting from a certain human process. We have searched the net quite a bit but unable to find any research (other than above link) on how proven is the application of plant life to oil decontamination.
Looking for folks to help us get a better understanding on the applicability, feasibility, and case studies where plants have been successfully used in soil decontamination.
Thx
Karthik

Hi Karthik,

The technical term for using plants to decontaminate soil is phytoremediation, which may help in internet searches. This cleanup technique, involving plants which absorb the desired contaminant (often heavy metals like lead) can be very effective, but make take a lot of time, up to 10-20 years for complete remediation of heavy metals. However, this time period may be shorter for different types of pollutants.

Here's some links that might be helpful. Let us know if you have any more questions.
https://clu-in.org/download/Citizens/a_ ... iation.pdf
http://www.folkecenter.net/gb/rd/biogas ... cleansoil/
http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/botany/b ... le_10.html

Hope this helped,
Allison