Macrophytic nutrient and heavy metal accumulation ability as a parameter of pollutant remediation in aquatic ecosystems
An important physiological property of aquatic vegetation, in general, is the ability to accumulate chemical elements unselectively. Therefore, numerous novel investigations of aquatic ecosystems are associated with the possibility of water purification by employing aquatic vegetation to remediate nutrients, heavy metals, and other pollutants (DeBusk et al., 2001; Scholz, 2003). Very influential is the role of aquatic flora in heavy metal accumulation taking into consideration the fact that heavy metal concentration in macrophytic tissue can be several ten to several thousand times higher than concentration in aquatic environment (Pajević et al., 2002; SameckaCymerman et al., 2005). Bioaccumulation ability of metals relies upon plant species, plant organ, and abiotic factors like temperature, pH, and concentration of chemical elements (Matagi et al., 1998). This particular ability and also the fact that macrophytes have powerful production of organic matter in water ecosystems make them suitable for ecological monitoring of water quality (Janauer, 2001; Samecka-Cymerman and Kempers, 2002). When the number of macrophytic species and their spatial and temporal distribution are used to evaluate the status of aquatic ecosystems, it is very important to employ also data on chemical composition of plants as biological parameters since bioconcentration of chemical elements in macrophytic tissue is a reliable parameter for the assessment of the environmental chemical load.