Rights statement: This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Environmental Science ad Technology, copyright © 2015 American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.5b04030
Accepted author manuscript, 489 KB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
| <mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 19/01/2016 |
|---|---|
| <mark>Journal</mark> | Environmental Science and Technology |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Pages (from-to) | 856-863 |
| Publication Status | Published |
| Early online date | 22/12/15 |
| <mark>Original language</mark> | English |
Cocontamination by heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) is ubiquitous in the environment. Fate of POPs within soil/water-plant system is a significant concern and an area where much uncertainty still exists when plants suffered cotoxicity from POPs and metals. This study investigated the fate of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) when copper (Cu) was present within the soil/water-plant system using pot and hydroponic experiments. The presence of Cu was found to induce damage to the root cell membranes of corn (Zea mays L. cv. Nongda 108) with increasing concentration in both shoots and roots. The PBDE congeners BDE209 and BDE47 in shoots were also enhanced with the increasing electrolytic leakage from root, attributed to Cu damage, and the highest shoot BDE209 and BDE47 levels were observed under the highest Cu dosage. In addition, positive correlations were observed between the PBDE content of corn shoots and the electrolytic leakage of corn roots. These results indicated that within a defective root system, more PBDEs will penetrate the roots and are acropetally translocated in the shoots. The potential ecological risk associated with the translocation and accumulation of POPs into plant shoots needs careful reconsideration in media cocontaminated with metals and POPs, whereas often ignored or underestimated in environmental risk assessments.