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Arsenic (As) contaminated soils and waters are becoming major global environmental and human health risks. The identification of natural hyperaccumulators of As opens the door for phytoremediation of the arsenic contaminant. Pteris vittata is the first identified naturally evolving As hyperaccumulator. More than a decade after its discovery, we have made great progress in understanding the uptake, transport, and detoxification of As in the fern. The molecular mechanisms controlling As accumulation in P. vittata are now beginning to be recognized. In this review, we will try to summarize what we have learned about this As accumulator, with particular emphasis on the current knowledge of the physiological and molecular mechanisms of arsenic phytoremediation. We also discuss the potential strategies to further enhance phytoextraction abilities of P. vittata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safe incineration of harvested hyperaccumulators containing high content of heavy metals to avoid secondary environmental pollution is a problem for popularizing phytoremediation technology. The As volatilization behavior and its mechanism during incineration of Pteris vittata, an As-hyperaccumulator, was investigated. Incineration results reveal that 24% of total As accumulated by P. vittata (H-As) containing high As content (1170 mg/kg) is emitted at 800 °C, of which 62.5% of the total emitted As is volatilized below 400 °C. A study of the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) shows that part of As(III) was identified in the thermal decomposition residue of dried P. vittata (H-As), As2O5 + P. vittata (L-As) containing low As content (14.7 mg/kg), and As2O5 + charcoal (C) at 200 °C, suggesting that carbon originating from biomass incineration might catalyze As(V) reduction. This speculation was tested through thermogravimetric experiments, in which either C or P. vittata (L-As) markedly catalyzed the volatilization of pure As2O5 at low temperature. Therefore, the reduction of As(V) to As(III) is responsible for As volatilization during incineration of P. vittata below 400 °C. This study provides important insights into As behavior during incineration of As-hyperaccumulators, which is helpful to safely dispose harvested biomass with high As content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laboratory experiments about the dissipation, adsorption and translocation in four paddy topsoils were conducted in this paper. From the results it can be concluded as follows; the dissipation rate of clomazone differed greatly in different paddy soil derived from different parent materials. The half-lives for clomazone degradation in paddy soils ranged from 5.7 to 22.0 d. The order of clomazone dissipation rate was reddish yellow paddy soil > alluvial sandy paddy soil > yellow clayey paddy soil > purple sandy paddy soil. Clomazone sorption quantity was significantly correlated with organic carbon (R² = 0.62) and clay content ( R² = 0.67) in the tested paddy soils. Positive correlation was found between apparent Kd value and cation exchange content( CEC). The consequences for the adsorption of different soils were purple sandy paddy soil> yellow clayey paddy soil> reddish yellow paddy soil> alluvial sandy paddy soil. Under the simulated rainfall of 200 mm through four different unsaturated soil lysimeters over 24 h, clornazone was readily to be leached into lower surface soil and there was about 2.6 % -4.2 % of applied clornazone leached out of 20 cm cultivated soil layer. Translocation experiments showed that the order of clomazone leaching ability was: alluvial sandy paddy soil > reddish yellow paddy soil > yellow clayey paddy soil > purple sandy paddy soil. Simple regression results manifested that factors like CEC, organic carbon, clay, and adsorption rate constant had been negatively correlated with the percentage of clomazone loss from soil lysimeters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]