Plant Uptake of Heavy Metals in Andong Serpentine Soil

Serpentines soil have high values of magnesium and low values of calcium, and are usually deficient in N and P, but rich in iron, Ni, silicates. We investigated serpentine soil properties and measured the content of nutrient elements and heavy metals in shoots and root of plant species which were in common at serpentine and non-serpentine areas in Andong, Korea. The soils showed higher pH value above 6.9. The contents of Ni, Cr, Fe and Mg of serpentine soils exhibited 77, 27, 5.5 and 12.5 times more than in non-serpentine soils, respectively. The content of Na was almost same but K was two times higher in non-serpentine soil, compared with serpentine soil. The contents of nutrient element such as K, Ca, Na and P in serpentine plants did not show conspicuous differences with non-serpentine plants. On the other hand, the concentrations of Ni, Cr, Fe, Mg and Mg/Ca were very high in plant on serpentine area. The all plant species collected at the serpentine site were bodenvag plants, which are not restricted to a specific type of substrate. By the plant species and parts of plant tissues, the absorption levels and patterns showed high variation and were species-specific. Carex lanceolata, Lysimachia clethroides and Cynanchum paniculatum contained much chromium and Eupatorium chinense and C. paniculatum exhibited high contents of Ni. In leaf tissue, C. lanceolata, Rubus parvifolius, Festuca ovina, Quercus serrata, and L. clethroides took comparatively large amount of Cr in serpentine area. E. chinense contained large amount of Ni, Cr and Fe in a leaf tissue. The stem of Galium verum, Juniperus rigida included high amount of Cr, Ni and Fe. And C. paniculatum absorbed large amount of Ni and Cr in the stem.