Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

:) my first post.

I am a highschool student, and I wanted to do my research on phytoremediation. :D

I have two questions:

1) is removing phosphorus from the water considered phytoremediation? or does it have to be a harmful toxic material?

2) Also, if I already know which plant that I am going to use (that has not yet been known to phytoremediate) what is the best way to find what factor I will look for? For example, would it be better if I tested for the removal of arsenic than lead, phosphorus, or cadmium, etc?

Thank you,

-June :D

What type of water are you considering? Surface water? Soil water?

(1) Yes. Removal of any unwanted solute from water by a plant could be considered phytoremediation. In surface waters, the typical problem with phosphorus is that it creates algae blooms and eutrophication. You would need some additional rationale of why it would be better to have your plant consume the phosphorus than the algae (e.g. maybe your plant could be easily removed from the water and composted elsewhere?).

In groundwater, phosphorus is rarely a problem because it adsorbs to solid sediments. So "phytoremediation of groundwater phosphorus" would probably not attract much interest as a topic.

(2) If you have no information about what the plant will do, then maybe it would be best to test for uptake of several different important contaminants. It might also depend on your resources for analyzing concentrations and your comfort (and permissions?) with using these potentially nasty substances in your experiments.

June,

Sounds like an interesting project. I take it you have a way to measure phosphorus in water--some type of probe. Right?

A cool, but kind of dirty project you might want to approach is testing the ground around outdoor cigarette containers. I have seen this done by undergrads in a lab I was working in. They first tested cigarettes for phosphates by crushing and soaking them in test tubes. Then they collected the soil around the cigarette containers on campus and compared it.

Perhaps you can come up with a way to integrate phytoremediation into an experiment similar to this.

Just don't smoke the cigarettes! They are bad for your health.

Good luck.

June wrote: my first post.

I am a highschool student, and I wanted to do my research on phytoremediation.

I have two questions:

1) is removing phosphorus from the water considered phytoremediation? or does it have to be a harmful toxic material?

2) Also, if I already know which plant that I am going to use (that has not yet been known to phytoremediate) what is the best way to find what factor I will look for? For example, would it be better if I tested for the removal of arsenic than lead, phosphorus, or cadmium, etc?

Thank you,

-June