Conference proceeding
Using populus species to degrade explosives for sustainable range management
Sustainable range management – 2004: Proceedings of the First Conference on Sustainable Range Management
01/05/2004
Abstract
Phytoremediation is a promising biotechnology for cleaning up sites con. taminated by toxic nitro-substituted explosives. However, a sustainable phytoremediation strategy should comprise an efficient detoxification of the pollutants taken up inside plant tissues. A single storage would result in a pollution transfer, since sooner or later, accumulated chemicals or their toxic metabolites will return to the soil or enter the food chain. This paper focuses on the fate of toxic explosives after their uptake inside poplar plant tissues. Poplar plantlets have been shown to remove the 14C-TNT, 14C-RDX, and 14CHMX from the hydroponic solution, suggesting an active uptake of these compounds inside plant tissues. The distribution of the radioactivity from initial 14C-explosives revealed an accumulation of TNT, or its transformation derivatives, in the roots, while RDX and HMX accumulated preferentially in leaf tissues. Leaf samples from plants preexposed to nitro-substituted explosives were shown to release a significant part of the radioactivity initially taken up by simple immersion in aqueous solution, suggesting a likely leaching of toxic explosives from leaves by natural weathering. Using poplar tissue cultures as a model for whole plant organisms, evidence for the phytotransformation of nitro-substituted explosives inside plant tissue has been obtained. Plant tissues were able to transform (reduction) TNT and to partially mineralize RDX and HMX to CO2. Since reduction metabolites are notoriously less toxic than original TNT and since mineralization of RDX and HMX implicates a complete breakdown of the parent molecules, both processes may result in a significant detoxification of toxic plosives inside plant tissues.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Using populus species to degrade explosives for sustainable range management
- Creators
- Benoit Van AkenJong-Moon YoonJerald L Schnoor
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding
- Publication Details
- Sustainable range management – 2004: Proceedings of the First Conference on Sustainable Range Management
- Publisher
- Battelle Press; Columbus, OH
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/05/2004
- Academic Unit
- Occupational and Environmental Health; Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9983997422502771
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