Sponsor: National Nature Science Foundation of China (NNSFC)
Headed by Luo Xiaosan
Date: 2011.01-2013.12

Since wetland plants can absorb and accumulate heavy metals, it is of great significance to elucidate the bioavailability, transport and transformation of heavy metals in the submerged soil-plant system. Rice and chromium (Cr) will be studied as a model system in this project. From the perspective of chemical speciation and sub-cellular level, the study aims to clarify the transport and transformation of Cr in submerged soil-solution-rice root iron plaque-root-shoot, and reveal the mechanisms of root iron plaque and the soil (solution) properties in the rhizospheric process for rice Cr uptake. It will investigate the applicability of Biotic Ligand Model (BLM) to heavy metals with variable valences and wetland plants with root iron plaque for the first time, and will improve the theory of heavy metal-plant interaction, and provide scientific basis for risk assessment and phytoremediation of heavy metals contaminated submerged soils.