A Review of Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals Using Macrophytes: Mechanisms, Efficacy, and Future Prospects

Abstract

Heavy metal (HM) contamination in aquatic habitats has increased significantly due to the fast pace of industrialization, posing serious risks to environmental stability and public health. Among the available technologies, phytoremediation a plant-based or “green” technology has emerged as a promising approach, especially when utilizing aquatic macrophytes. Certain aquatic macrophyte species can cope with these harsh circumstances, even if there is a high amount of heavy metal contaminants in the water. The potential of this method has been further enhanced by the discovery of hyperaccumulator plants, with the capacity to absorb, move, store, and concentrate significant amounts of contaminants in their harvestable parts. Phytoremediation involves different mechanisms, including phytoextraction, phytovolatilization and rhizofiltration. Numerous aquatic plant species like Eichhornia, Lemna, Potamogeton, Spirodela, Wolffia, Azolla, and Pistia have shown effectiveness in the removal of contaminants like arsenic, cadmium, zinc, copper, lead, chromium, and mercury from polluted water bodies. This review emphasizes on aquatic macrophytes\' unique remediation properties and their function as a crucial component of phytotechnologies to reduce aquatic pollution.

Introduction

Bioremediation is an eco-friendly method that uses microorganisms, fungi, or plants to degrade or detoxify hazardous contaminants in soil, water, or air. Among these, phytoremediation—using plants to remove or stabilize heavy metals in contaminated soils and water—has gained significant attention due to its sustainability and minimal environmental impact. Plants absorb heavy metals through their roots and transform or store them in less harmful forms. The process relies heavily on rhizosphere microbial communities that enhance metal uptake and pollutant breakdown, promoting soil health and ecosystem restoration.

Phytoremediation offers several advantages over conventional remediation methods: it is cost-effective, preserves ecosystems, and supports biodiversity and other ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and erosion control. Aquatic plants, or macrophytes, like Eichhornia crassipes, Pistia stratiotes, Lemna, and Typha are particularly effective in cleaning heavy metals from water bodies, playing a crucial role in aquatic ecosystem health by filtering pollutants and stabilizing sediments.

Macrophytes are categorized based on their growth habits: submerged, floating-leaved, free-floating, and emergent, each contributing uniquely to aquatic ecosystems. They improve water quality, provide habitat for aquatic life, and serve as bioindicators of pollution.

Heavy metal contamination arises primarily from industrial activities like mining, smelting, and the use of fertilizers and pesticides. These metals are toxic, non-biodegradable, and accumulate in ecosystems, posing serious risks to environmental and human health. The review underscores the importance of phytoremediation by macrophytes as a sustainable and effective strategy for managing heavy metal pollution in aquatic environments, highlighting the need for integrated approaches to protect ecosystems amid ongoing industrialization.

Conclusion

Phytoremediation offers an eco-friendly approach to eliminating persistent contaminants from natural ecosystems, aiming for complete environmental restoration. Among its various strategies, selecting the suitable plant species is essential to its success for successful remediation. Aquatic macrophytes especially those classified as hyperaccumulators play a crucial role in the uptake and stabilization of heavy metals from polluted sites (Ali et al,2020; Pang et al.,2023). These aquatic plants efficiently remove heavy metals through different mechanisms like bioaccumulation and biosorption, driven by complex interactions involving metal transport, chelating agents, and cellular-level responses. Recent advances in genetic modification have enhanced the capability of plants to absorb and tolerate higher levels of contaminants (Eapen & D\'souza,2005; Seth,2012; Fasani et al.,2018). While genetic engineering has been extensively applied to terrestrial plants, its application in aquatic species remains relatively underexplored. Nonetheless, genetically modified plants show promising potential for boosting phytoremediation efficiency through improved metal uptake and stress resistance (Yadav et al.,2010). Beyond their role in remediation, harvested plant biomass can be repurposed for example, to generate methane or serve as livestock feed making phytoremediation not only effective but also resource-efficient. Unlike traditional physicochemical treatments, aquatic phytoremediation generally requires no post-filtration and can treat large volumes of contaminated water and sediment (Ali et al.,2020). Given water\'s vital role in sustaining life, increasing pollution levels mostly due to anthropogenic activities pose a direct threat to ecosystems. Therefore, the implementation of cost-effective, plant-based bioremediation technologies is imperative. Among these, the use of aquatic macrophytes stands out due to their rapid growth, high biomass yield, and natural resilience. Wild aquatic weeds have demonstrated a high tolerance to pollutants, acting as effective buffers that limit contaminant entry into different trophic level of the food chain. This review emphasizes on the versatile applications of aquatic macrophytes in remediating a large range of inorganic and organic pollutants in aquatic ecosystem. Free-floating species like Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce) and Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth), are particularly valuable because of their exceptional abilities to cumulate heavy metals and reduce water quality parameters like Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD). The scientific community and various government-ponsored projects have acknowledged the significance of aquatic macrophytes in managing water pollution (Morse et al.,2007). These plants are widely used in constructed wetlands and hydroponic systems for field-scale remediation. Their widespread distribution, high bioaccumulation capacity, reproductive versatility, and invasive nature make them both effective and challenging to manage (Hofstra et al.,2020). However, several limitations remain. The physicochemical characteristics of the polluted medium, the kind and concentration of pollutants, the choice of plant species, and the surrounding environment are some of the variables that affect the rate at which phytoremediation works (Magdziak et al.,2014; Teiri et al.,2022). Furthermore, the invasive nature of some aquatic macrophytes poses a serious threat to local biodiversity and aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, integrated management strategies including mechanical, physical, biological, and chemical controls are necessary to regulate their spread during phytoremediation processes (Wenzel, 2009; Knight et al.,2014). Ongoing research is focused on identifying and isolating genes responsible for hyperaccumulation of specific heavy metals. By combining multiple desirable traits into single plant species, scientists hope to develop more efficient phytoremediators. In parallel, proteomic studies are helping to uncover the proteins used in transport of pollutant and their vacuolar sequestration, deepening our understanding of phytoremediation mechanisms at the molecular level. Despite existing challenges, phytoremediation holds significant promise as a green, low-cost, and non-destructive alternative to traditional method of remediation. It preserves native microbial communities and soil fauna while addressing environmental contamination. As research progresses, particularly in phytoextraction and phytomining, phytoremediation is expected to evolve into a commercially feasible approach for the sustainable management of heavy metal pollution.

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