Mehdi Sadravi, Najmeh Gharacheh,
Volume 2, Issue 2 (9-2013)
Abstract
Contamination of the soil in limited arable areas with toxic substances has increased during recent decades. Phytoremediation is a technology in which plants are applied to remove, degrade or reduce the hazardous effects of toxic substances in the soil. Symbiotic fungi in symbiosis relation with plant roots efficiently increase the plants ability to remove the toxic substances from contaminated soils. The ectomycorrhizal fungus Hebeloma mesophaeum which is in symbiosis with norway spruce, beech, alder, willow and pussy, can uptake the heavy metals of soil and disable them in its hartig net in the root epidermis. It helps plants to maintain optimal growth and establish in contaminated soil. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Funneliformis mosseae, Claroideoglomus etunicatum, Septoglomus deserticola, Glomus versiforme and
G. intraradices help to deploy for optimal growth, and more absorption of nutrients in contaminated soils to cadmium, lead, zinc, arsenic and petroleum in maize, soybean, clover, subterranean clover, tomato and eucalyptus. These fungi can fix and disable these elements and pollutants in intraradical hyphal net. Accordingly, mycorrhizal fungi are powerful biological restoratives in contaminated lands.
