Arsenic (As) is recognized as one of the main toxicants worldwide. Arsenic in the environment can be due to natural sources such as the weathering of rocks and volcanic material, but its presence is increasing due to anthropogenic activities such as the use of pesticides, industrial waste and smelting. The accumulation of this heavy metal in the biosphere produces serious effects on the environment and health. Nowadays, the removal of As from drinking water to respect the law limit involves high costs filtering systems. Therefore, a low cost and eco-sustainable strategy based on the use of ferns for phytodepuration of As-contaminated groundwater was developed. The aim of this work was to investigate the possibility of monitoring, by spectroscopy working in the Vis–SWIR regions (350 – 2500 nm), the phytoextraction capacity of the hyper-accumulator Pteris vittata fern, hydroponically grown in greenhouse conditions. The proposed approach is non-destructive, being based on the acquisition of spectroscopic data on fern leaves, followed by chemometric analysis. Reflectance spectra were acquired by a portable spectrophotoradiometer (ASD FieldSpec® 4 Standard–Res). Comparative evaluations were then performed analyzing Pteris vittata leaves (fronds) collected from plants grown on both As contaminated and not contaminated water. The achieved results are very promising for the further development of a full on-site scale monitoring of the phytoremediation process.
An innovative approach, based on hyperspectral imaging (HSI) coupled with chemometrics, allowing the detection of arsenic (As) in the hyper-accumulator fern Pteris Vittata L., is presented in this study. The aim of this work was to investigate the possibility of monitoring by HSI the As sequestration capacity of plants grown on As-contaminated soils, in order to perform soil remediation. The proposed approach is based on the acquisition by HSI in the SWIR range (1000-2500 nm) of fern leaves, followed by the implementation of a classification model based on Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA). Following this procedure, false color maps, representative of the chemical elements distribution on the leaves were obtained, where As is clearly detected without performing any chemical analysis. The proposed approach is not invasive and not destructive. Comparative evaluations were carried out analyzing Pteris Vittata L. leaves collected from plants grown on natural soils containing different As concentrations. To evaluate reliability, robustness and analytical correctness of the proposed HSI approach, micro X-ray fluorescence (μXRF) analyses were carried out on the same samples in order to quantitatively and topologically assess As presence in the leaves of the plants. The achieved results are very promising for monitoring the phytoremediation process by detecting and controlling the uptake of As plants growing on contaminated soils.
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