, Volume 81, Issue 13, pp 2688-2693

Study of the interactions betweenElodea canadensis and CuO nanoparticles

Abstract

Copper is one of the key heavy metals that pollute environment and constitute a serious threat to the health of humans and ecosystems. Copper may enter the aquatic environment in both soluble and nanoparticle form. It was previously found in a series of studies that nanoparticles, including those of several metal oxides, exercise both negative and positive effects on the higher plants which makes necessary further research on the interaction between metal oxide nanoparticles and plants. Interactions between aquatic plants and copper-containing nanoparticles were not sufficiently studied. The goal of this study was to contribute to the investigation of the interactions between CuO nanoparticles and the aquatic plant Elodea canadensis under the conditions of experimental microcosms. It was found that CuO nanoparticles demonstrated some phytotoxicity to Elodea canadensis. After the incubation of Elodea canadensis in the aquatic medium contaminated with CuO nanoparticles there was a significant increase (by two orders of magnitude) of the concentration of copper in the biomass of the plants.
Original Russian Text © M.E. Johnson, S.A. Ostroumov, J.F. Tyson, B. Xing, 2011, published in Ekologicheskaya Khimiya, 2011, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 189–194.
M.E. Johnson, graduate student, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, U.S.A.
Sergei Andreevich Ostroumov, Leading Scientist, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
Julian F. Tyson, Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, U.S.A.
Baoshan Xing, Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, U.S.A.