Besedin, J.A., D.A. Besedin, L.S. Khudur, S.K. Biek, G. Aguilar Jr., P. Netherway, A. L. Juhasz, S. Horner, and A.S. Ball. Science of The Total Environment 1020:181602(2026)
Filed Under: Demonstrations
Filed Under: Demonstrations
Historic gold mining in Australia produced arsenic-contaminated waste, and Victoria has reported arsenic concentrations up to 47,100 mg/kg in impacted soil. Soil arsenic concentrations above 100 mg/kg in residential soil with garden access require site-specific management and remediation. A 6-month pilot was conducted to investigate P. labillardieri for plant growth and arsenic bioaccumulation under field conditions and assess soil amendment, 5% biosolids biochar (wet weight (w/w)) plus 5% compost (w/w), for optimization. Objectives included quantification of soil characteristics, soil and plant metal(loid) concentrations by acid digestion, arsenic bioaccumulation, and microbial analyses by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. P. labillardieri successfully grew and bioaccumulated arsenic under field conditions with and without the amendment (5% biochar plus 5% compost). The plant-only treatment significantly (p = 0.01) bioaccumulated more arsenic in the roots (∼108 mg/kg) than plant plus amendment (∼55 mg/kg); and had a significantly (p = 0.017) higher bioconcentration factor, demonstrating the plant's potential for phytostabilisation without assistance. A long-term field trial with additional analyses is recommended to validate P. labillardieri and the soil amendment for phytostabilisation of gold mine waste-impacted soil. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969726002639/pdfft?md5=f04a28e58c681dd5c56e305e1b70a8fc&pid=1-s2.0-S0048969726002639-main.pdf