Harnessing native flora and rhizobacteria in floating wetlands for sustainable water decontamination
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71336/jabs.1405Keywords:
Contamination, Floating treatment wetland, Indigenous plants, Plant growth promoting, rhizobacteria, PhytoremediationAbstract
Water pollution poses significant threats to ecosystems and human health. Sustainable, eco-friendly technologies for treating contaminated water using phytoremediation offer a promising solution to detoxify the polluted water. This study uses floating treatment wetlands (FTWs), a cost-effective phytoremediation technology, to treat contaminated water by employing indigenous plants and their associated plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). Plant samples were collected from the banks of a water channel in the sub-tropical region of Karima, Attock, Pakistan (33°39'04.2"N, 72°42'14.6"E). The plant species selected for this study were Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium), Vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides), Parthenium (Parthenium hystophorous), Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon), and Hemp (Cannabis sativa), because of their potential for heavy metal uptake and tolerance. PGPR isolates associated with these plants underwent biochemical characterization, yielding positive results and further validated through nucleotide homology to ensure the selection of the most effective strains. The FTWs were seeded with Vetiver grass and Bermuda grass, both known for their robustness and high phytoremediation capacity. Physicochemical analyses of the contaminated water revealed significant reductions in heavy metal concentrations, including cadmium reduced (to 0.0000 mg/L), nickel (to 0.0016 mg/L), and chromium (to 0.0117 mg/L. These results underscore the effectiveness of the FTW system in improving water quality. Present work demonstrates that the integration of Vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides) and Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon) with their symbiotic bacteria, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, in FTWs, is a viable and sustainable method for the remediation of heavy metal-contaminated water, offering a practical solution for environmental restoration and pollution control.
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