Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Journal of Young Scientist", Vol. 5
Written by Halil Burak ERTÜRK, Nizamettin ÖZDOĞAN
In recent years, urbanization, industrialization, population, domestic and industrial productions are increasing. However, organic and inorganic wastes are released into the ecosystem. Mining, urban or industrial solid, gas and liquid waste, pesticide and artificial fertilizer use, paint industry and car exhaust gases cause excessive release of heavy metals in nature. Some activities of heavy metals accumulate in there sulting soil. This accumulation is not just about soil and ecosystem. At the same time affects the food chain also human and animal health. These polluted soils are the most difficult work in terms of environmental engineering. The high costs of clean-up activities of contaminated soil have limited the use of classical disposal technologies limited.
Environmental engineers have also developed phytoremediation and bioremediation techniques to remove these toxic elements. The phytoremediation technique is more preferrable in this field, because of its environmental friendly properties and cost.The ability of hyperacumulator plants to absorb large amounts of toxic elements in their bodies mad ethese plant spreferrable in clean up activities. One of the most important advantages of the phytoremedical technique is that it provides in-situtreatment and it requires very few extra efforts to remove the pollution. In addition, phytoremediation does not harm natural resources. However, the phytoremediation technique can only be use in shallow regions in water, soil and sediment. Another short coming of their technique is that plants can not show their efficacy in very short time in highly polluted areas. For this reason, the phytoremediation technique can only be used at low levels of contaminated sites. In this review, the effects of heavy metals in the soil, the applications of the phytoremediation technique to remove heavy metals from the soil and the prosandcons of these methods have been studied.
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