PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #82: Urban Ecology.
Presiding: M. Cadenasso
Thursday, August 8. 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM. Grand Ballroom East, Radisson.
Phytoremediation of a PAH contaminated brownfield in Upstate New York.
NOWAK, CHRISTOPHER*,1, PATINO, JESSICA1, 1 STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK COLLEGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND FORESTRY, SYRACUSE, NEW YORK
ABSTRACT- Abandoned and underutilized industrial lands, commonly referred to as brownfields, are common throughout the United States. Remediation of contaminated brownfield soils may be accomplished through growth and development of cultured plant communities. Our study addressed 2-year effects of various vegetation communities established on a polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contaminated brownfield in Upstate New York. Our objective was to determine whether these communities could decrease PAH concentrations to a level below critical thresholds for human health. A randomized complete block design with four replications was used to compare four treatments: planted grass/clover, planted willow/poplar, a "volunteer" old-field plant community, and a de-vegetated control. Experimental units were 6x6 m plots. At-time-of-planting PAH concentrations did not differ among treatments. End of the second growing season PAH concentrations did differ among treatments, with the willow/poplar community having significantly reduced PAH levels to 111 mg/kg, compared to 175, 127, and 169 mg/kg for the grass/clover, volunteer, and control treatments, respectively. A companion study demonstrated that rhizosphere differences may have promoted the presence of PAH-consuming microbes, consistent with a process referred at as "plant-assisted bioremediation". While contaminant levels were not reduced below critical thresholds for any one PAH, we expect this may happen in the next few years as the plant systems more fully dominate site dynamics.
KEY WORDS: phytoremediation, brownfield, polyaromatic hydrocarbon, rhizosphere