Enhancement of Phytoextraction of Zn, Cd, and Cu from Calcareous Soil:  The Use of NTA and Sulfur Amendments

In a field experiment we investigated the efficiency of two hyperaccumulating species, four agricultural crop plants, and one woody crop, at phytoextraction of Zn, Cd, and Cu from a polluted calcareous soil. In addition, we examined the possibility to enhance the phytoextraction of these metals by application of nitrilotriacetate (NTA) and elemental sulfur (S8) to the soil. Metal uptake by hyperaccumulating species was higher than that by crop species but was generally low in all treatments compared to results reported in the literature, maybe as a result of lower total and available soil metal concentrations. Soil amended with either S8 or NTA increased the solubility (NaNO3-extraction) of Zn, Cd, and Cu ions by factors of 21, 58, and 9, respectively, but plant accumulation of these metals was only increased by a factor of 2−3. As a result, even the highest metal removal rates achieved in this study were still far from what would be required to make this technique practicable for the remediation of the Dornach field site. To extract for example 50% of the total Cu, Zn, or Cd present in this soil within 10 years, plant metal concentrations of 10.000 mg kg-1 Cu or 10.000 mg kg-1 Zn or 45 mg kg-1 Cd would be required at a biomass production of 7.8 t ha-1, or 10t ha-1, or 10t ha-1, respectively, assuming a linear decrease in soil metals.