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Growth tolerance and remediation potential of six plants in oil-polluted soil

  • Soils, Sec 3 • Remediation and Management of Contaminated or Degraded Lands • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study was to screen plant species for remediation of oil-polluted soil in a semi-arid loess area.

Materials and methods

Pot experiments were conducted to test six indigenous plant species: ryegrass (Lolium perenne), tall fescue (Festuca ovina), wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum), alfalfa (Medicago sativa), erect milkvetch (Astragalus adsurgens), and caragana (Caragana korshinskii). Loessial soil was spiked with crude oil at five pollution levels (0, 0.5, 1, 2, and 4%, w/w). We analyzed plant growth parameters at different stages, soil oxidoreductase activities, and oil degradation rate under different treatments.

Results and discussion

Soil pollution by oil negatively affected the germination rate, plant height, and biomass of all six species while inhibiting soil dehydrogenase and catalase activities. These inhibitory effects increased with increasing oil pollution level, with 2% and 1% being the critical levels at which plant growth and soil oxidoreductase activities were significantly inhibited, respectively. Both oxidoreductase activities in the rhizosphere soil were significantly higher than those in the bulk soil, which led to a considerable increase in the degradation rate of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) in the rhizosphere. The plants showed varying remediation effects in the oil-polluted soil. Erect milkvetch and caragana showed potential for remediation of soil below the 0.5% pollution level, alfalfa for soil below the 1% pollution level, and ryegrass, tall fescue, and wheatgrass for soil below the 4% pollution level. The oil pollution level was negatively correlated with plant height, biomass, oxidoreductase activities, and TPH degradation rate for the six plants (p < 0.01), whereas plant biomass was positively correlated with plant height and TPH degradation rate (p < 0.01). Dehydrogenase activity was significantly positively correlated with catalase activity (p < 0.01), while both of them were positively correlated with TPH degradation rate (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively).

Conclusions

In conclusion, the six indigenous plants exhibited different tolerances to oil pollution, among which ryegrass, tall fescue, and wheatgrass had the greatest potential for remediation of oil-polluted soil in the loess area.

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Abbreviations

TPH:

Total petroleum hydrocarbon

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Funding

This study was financially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, CHD (300102279501), and the Research Project of Shaanxi Provincial Land Engineering Construction Group in China (DJNY2018-17).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China

    Yang Wei & Yiquan Wang

  2. Shaanxi Provincial Land Engineering Construction Group Co., Ltd., **’an, 710075, China

    Yang Wei, Jichang Han & Gang Li

  3. Key Laboratory of Degraded and Unused Land Consolidation Engineering, the Ministry of Natural Resources, **’an, 710075, China

    Yang Wei, Jichang Han & Gang Li

  4. Centre for Ecological Forecasting and Global Change, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China

    Min Duan

Authors
  1. Yang Wei
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  2. Yiquan Wang
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  3. Min Duan
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  4. Jichang Han
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  5. Gang Li
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Correspondence to Yiquan Wang.

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Responsible editor: Yanzheng Gao

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Wei, Y., Wang, Y., Duan, M. et al. Growth tolerance and remediation potential of six plants in oil-polluted soil. J Soils Sediments 19, 3773–3785 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-019-02348-w

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