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► Journal BrowserSpecial Issue "Aquatic Plants as Bioindicators of Trace Metal Pollution"
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Pollution Prevention, Mitigation and Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 October 2021.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: plant ecology; aquatic botany; biogeochemistry of aquatic plants; trace metal bioaccumulation; biomonitoring
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The contamination and degradation of aquatic ecosystems is considered one of the most serious current global environmental problems. Watercourses and aquatic reservoirs serve as carriers and/or direct or indirect sinks for various contaminants. Trace metals are among the hazardous, non-degradable pollutants associated with human activity, and they accumulate in soil, sediment and living organisms, posing a serious threat to the environment and humans. Therefore, addressing the problems of aquatic pollution and monitoring is crucial in view of developing management as well as protection strategies and has become one of the top priorities for sustainable development.
Due to fluctuations in trace metal concentrations in water, aquatic ecosystems are particularly difficult to reliably monitor using physicochemical analyses; therefore, the need to develop new methods is particularly pressing in the case of these habitats. Trace metal accumulation in aquatic plants has been frequently studied, providing the basis for the development of numerous methods of bioindication, and various species of aquatic macrophytes are considered good bioindicators. Biomonitoring is considered to be more reliable, effective and informative than physicochemical monitoring methods and therefore needs to be further studied and developed to address the emerging problems of water pollution.
The goal of this Special Issue is to provide a platform for scientists and academics to promote, share, and discuss various issues and developments concerning the use of aquatic plants in trace metal monitoring and assessment. For this Special Issue, potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Various aspects of the use of aquatic plants as indicators of trace metals;
- Environmental monitoring and assessment using different groups of aquatic plants;
- Aquatic plants as reactive, passive and/or active bioindicators of trace elements;
- New indicators, new approaches and methods for indicator development, testing and use;
- The testing and development of trace metal pollution indices using aquatic plants;
- The direct application of aquatic plants as bioindicators for management purposes;
- Challenges relating to the use of aquatic plants in the sustainable monitoring of trace metal pollution.
We welcome high-quality, original research articles as well as review papers, communications, case studies, short overviews or comments presenting theoretical and experimental progress as well as discussing new research directions in different aspects of using aquatic plants in the biomonitoring of trace metal levels, fates and impacts on the environment. We hope to collect valuable articles that will inspire future research and interdisciplinary discussions.
Dr. Ludmiła Polechońska
Dr. Małgorzata Dambiec
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- biomonitoring
- potentialy toxic metals
- heavy metals
- macrophytes
- aquatic contamination
- water quality
- bioaccumulation
- hyperaccumulators
- indicator species
- biogeochemistry of aquatic plants
- pollution indices
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Nuphar lutea L. as bioindicator of trace metal pollution
Authors: Ludmiła Polechońska; Agnieszka Klink; Aleksandra Golob; Mateja Germ
Affiliation: 1. Department of Ecology, Biogeochemistry and Environmental Protection, University of Wrocław, ul. Kanonia 6/8, 50-328 Wrocław, Poland 2. Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva ul. 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract: Macrophytes have a capacity to absorb elements from the water and sediment and they can be bioindicators of pollution. Using bioindicators is recommended in freshwater environments because measuring the pollutant content in the organism is the only way of evaluating the bioavailability of a pollutant present in the environment. In the present study, the uptake of several trace (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) and alkali (Ca, K, Mg) metals by Nuphar lutea from 56 water bodies with different land use has been investigated. Study sites were grouped in three types: urban, agricultural and semi-natural according to dominant land cover and anthropogenic activities. Elemental concentrations of water bodies exposed to different anthropogenic activities were different. Results highlighted higher levels of pollution in urban and agricultural areas than in forest areas. The differences between the groups of study sites were significant mainly between forest areas and the urban and agricultural areas. The relationship between plants and their habitats was demonstrated also by correlations which indicated on accumulation of several elements in plant proportional to content in water and sediment. The levels of metals in leaves were high and contents differed between sites exposed to various metal sources indicating the possibility of using leaves of N. lutea as indicators of water and sediment pollution in water bodies (in biomonitoring process). What’s more, the article presents the possibility of application of neural networks in bioindication investigations (e.g. for recognizing the type of pollution).