Phytoremediation of Cadmium Polluted Waters by a Eucalypt Hybrid Clone: a Mesocosm Study

The reclamation of contaminated environmental matrices by sustainable technologies such as phytoremediation has been receiving increasing attention worldwide. In this regard, forest plants have been reported as suitable species for remediation of civil and industrial wastewater. Eucalyptus spp. have been reported to show promising perspectives for the reclamation of municipal wastewater, sewage effluents, organic and heavy metal contaminated substrates. In this work, attention has been focused on evaluating the phytoremediation potential of a eucalypt hybrid clone in the decontamination of a Cd-spiked water in a mass-balance open chamber (mesocosm) filled with perlite under field condition along 65 days. Results indicated that Cd exposure did not affect the water consumption, the biomass production and the leaf chlorophyll content in treated plants compared to control ones. Most part of Cd was retained by perlite and only a limited fraction was absorbed by plants. Cadmium was accumulated mainly in roots, confirming the poor metal translocation to aerial organs in eucalypt. Results were discussed taking into account that in a longer period Cd adsorbed onto perlite could be mobilised and absorbed by plants which can be totally harvested and replaced, improving the phytoremediation efficiency.