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TECHNICAL REPORTS
Heavy Metals in the Environment

Root Growth and Metal Uptake in Four Grasses Grown on Zinc-Contaminated Soils

^a U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, 72 Lyme Road, Hanover, NH 03755
^b U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Environmental Laboratory, 3909 Halls Ferry Road, Vicksburg, MS 39180

^* Corresponding author (antonio.j.palazzo{at}erdc.usace.army.mil)

Received for publication July 11, 2001. Depth and area of rooting are important to long-term survival of plants on metal-contaminated, steep-slope soils. We evaluated shoot and root growth and metal uptake of four cool-season grasses grown on a high-Zn soil in a greenhouse. A mixture of biosolids, fly ash, and burnt lime was placed either directly over a Zn-contaminated soil or over a clean, fine-grained topsoil and then the Zn-contaminated soil; the control was the clean topsoil. The grasses were ‘Reliant’ hard fescue (Festuca brevipila R. Tracey), ‘Oahe’ intermediate wheatgrass [Elytrigia intermedia (Host) Nevski subsp. intermedia], ‘Ruebens’ Canada bluegrass (Poa compressa L.), and ‘K-31’ tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.). Root growth in the clean soil and biosolids corresponded to the characteristic rooting ability of each species, while rooting into the Zn-contaminated soil was related to the species' tolerance to Zn. While wheatgrass and tall fescue had the strongest root growth in the surface layers (0–5 cm) of clean soil or biosolids, wheatgrass roots were at least two times more dense than those of the other grasses in the second layer (5–27 cm) of Zn-contaminated soil. When grown over Zn-contaminated soil in the second layer, hard fescue (with 422 mg/kg Zn) was the only species not to have phytotoxic levels of Zn in shoots; tall fescue had the highest Zn uptake (1553 mg/kg). Thus, the best long-term survivors in high-Zn soils should be wheatgrass, due to its ability to root deeply into Zn-contaminated soils, and hard fescue, with its ability to effectively exclude toxic Zn uptake.

Abbreviations: BCP, biosolids mixture over clean topsoil and zinc-contaminated soil • BPP, mixture of biosolids, fly ash, and burnt lime over zinc-contaminated soil • CCC, control treatment with clean soil

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This Issue in Journal of Environmental Quality

JEQ 2003 32: 745-750. [Full Text]