Abstract

This article proposes a mathematical model to characterize phytoremediation processes in soils contaminated with heavy metals. In particular, the proposed model constructs characteristic curves for the concentrations of several metals (As, Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, Sb, and Zn) in soils and plants based on the experimental data retrieved from several bibliographical sources comprising 305 vegetal species. The proposed model is an extension of previous models of characteristic curves in phytoremediation processes developed by Lam et al. for root measurements using the bioconcentration factor. However, the proposed model extends this approach to consider roots, as well as aerial parts and shoots of the plant, while at the same time providing a less complex mathematical formula compared to the original. The final model shows an adjusted R2 of 0.712, and all its parameters are considered statistically significant. The model may be used to assess samples from a given plant species to identify its potential as an accumulator in the context of soil phytoremediation processes. Furthermore, a simplified version of the model was constructed using an approximation to provide an easy to-compute alternative that is valid for concentrations below 37,000 mg/kg. This simplified model shows results similar to the original model for concentrations below this threshold and it uses an adjusted factor defined as [](plant)/ root[](soil) that must be compared with a threshold depending on the metal, type of measurement, and target (e.g., accumulator or hyper accumulator). The full model construction shows that 90 out of the 305 species assessed have a potential behavior as accumulators and 10 of them as hyper accumulators. Finally, out of the 1405 experimental measurements, 1177 were shown to be accumulators or hyperaccumulators. In particular, 85% of the results coincide with the reported values, thus validating the proposed model.