Comparison among native floating aquatic macrophytes for bioconcentration of heavy metals

This work was aimed to show the development of a comparative study of the capability of bioindicators to reveal the presence of heavy metals among species of floating aquatic macrophytes such as Spirodela sp (giant duckweed), Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce), Salvinia sp used as a parameter for bioconcentration factors plant / sediment. We performed a simple sampling at six sites in the region of Pelotas, southern Brazil, in which it was collected sediments and plants. The plants experienced the nitric perchloric acid digestion method, while the sediment suffered pseudo total acid digestion method. The determination of Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn in the extracts was conducted by atomic absorption spectrophotometry in flame. In general, the floating aquatic macrophytes studied showed better bioconcentration factor for metals from the sediment in the following order: Cu>Zn>Pb>Cr. For copper, the figures obtained with Pistia stratiots ranged from 5.7 to 82.8. The BCF for Zn ranged from 3.0 to 11.6 and Salvinia sp. For the Pb bioconcentration factor, it ranged from 5.4 to 0.6 in Spirodela sp. The in situ study showed that all species had high bioaccumulation potential, especially Pistia stratiotes that was employed to remove copper