Page 127 - Plant-Based Remediation Processes

Chapter 7
Use of Wetland Plants in Bioaccumulation
of Heavy Metals

Soumya Chatterjee, Sibnarayan Datta, Priyanka Halder Mallick,
Anindita Mitra, Vijay Veer, and Subhra Kumar Mukhopadhyay

7.1 Environmental Contamination

Environmental pollutants due to dispersal of industrial and urban wastes generated
through anthropogenic activities have become a major global concern. Most of the
pollutants once enter into the environment get accumulated in soils and aquatic
environments, creating wide spread contamination that vary in composition and in
concentration. Several factors are responsible for the migration of contaminants
like controlled and uncontrolled disposal of organic and inorganic wastes, acciden-
tal and process spillages, inadequate residue disposal, mining, and smelting of
metalliferous ores, sewage sludge application to agricultural soils, etc. (Ghosh
and Singh 2005; Kavamura and Esposito 2010). Steady deterioration of the envi-
ronment due to pollution and its ailing effects to mankind is among the major
concerns worldwide.
Heavy metals (elements with metallic properties like ductility, conductivity,
stability as cations, ligand specificity, etc., with an atomic number >20 and having
3
specific weight >5g cm ) constitute an exceptionally diverse assembly of
elements largely diverse in their chemical characteristics and biological functions.
Though most of the metals are essential, all are toxic to organisms at higher
concentrations due to production of free radicals that cause oxidative stress or

S. Chatterjee (*) • S. Datta • V. Veer
Defence Research Laboratory, DRDO, Post Bag 2, Tezpur 784 001, Assam, India
e-mail: drlsoumya@gmail.com
P.H. Mallick
Department of Zoology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore (West) 721 102, West Bengal, India
A. Mitra
Department of Zoology, Bankura Christian College, Bankura 722 101, West Bengal, India
S.K. Mukhopadhyay
Hooghly Mohsin College, Chinsurah 712 101, West Bengal, India

D.K. Gupta (ed.), Plant-Based Remediation Processes, Soil Biology 35, 117
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-35564-6_7, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013