A novel phytoremediation method assisted by magnetized water to decontaminate soil Cd based on harvesting senescent and dead leaves of Festuca arundinacea

It is more economical and feasible to harvest above-ground plant tissues, especially leaves, than to uproot the entire plant during phytoremediation. The major goal of this study is to estimate the promoting effect of an external magnetic field on soil Cadmium (Cd) remediation efficiency by harvesting the leaves of Festuca arundinacea, irrigated by normal and magnetized water. Changes in the amount of emerging, mature, senescent, and dead leaves, as well as Cd concentrations in the corresponding tissues were compared. It was found that F. arundinacea irrigated by either kind of water accumulated significantly more Cd in senescent and dead leaves than in other tissues. After irrigation with magnetized water, the biomass of senescent and dead leaves increased from 15.7 and 6.4% to 17.2 and 11.6%, respectively, and a significantly higher amount of Cd (similar to 23.6%) was redistributed into dead leaves compared with the control. Thus, significantly more Cd was removed by harvesting the senescent and dead leaves of F. arundinacea. These results indicate that magnetic fields can increase the phytoremediation efficiency of F. arundinacea for Cd, and simultaneously reduce the cost of harvested residue disposal.