Nickel-Accumulating Plants: A Taxonomic Survey in Manicani Island Mining Site | InformativeBD

Marixel C. Evardone, from the institute of the Philippines. and Esperanza Maribel G. Agoo, from the institute of the Philippines. wrote a Research Article about, Nickel-Accumulating Plants: A Taxonomic Survey in Manicani Island Mining Site. entitled, Taxonomic survey of nickel accumulating plants in a mining site of Manicani Island, Guiuan, Eastern Samar, Philippines. This research paper published by the International Journal of Biosciences (IJB). an open access scholarly research journal on Biosciences. under the affiliation of the International Network For Natural Sciences | INNSpub. an open access multidisciplinary research journal publisher.

Abstract

A taxonomic survey of the nickel accumulating plants found in Manicani Island, Eastern Samar, Philippines is conducted to assess the phytoremediation potentials of indigenous vascular plant species found in the area.  Dimethyglyoxime (DMG) kit field test was conducted to screen the encountered vascular plant species on site for nickel content in their aboveground tissues. Atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) was done both on the soil and leaves of the collected plants to determine their respective nickel contents.  Vitex parviflora A.Juss. together with other fourteen species from thirteen genera and twelve families were classified as hemi-accumulators (nickel content between 100-999 μg/g in dry matter). Fourteen species were classified as nickel non-accumulators, ten species still need further identification measures to confirm its species identity and Ficus pseudopalma which is endemic to the Philippines is found in the island.  A careful morphological examination combined with molecular identification protocols are recommended to know the identities of the unknown plant species.

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Introduction

Heavy metal accumulators are plants with the rare ability to extract given metals and metalloids, have the capacity to accumulate them in normally toxic shoot tissue concentrations without any evidence of physiological stress (Baker and Brooks, 1989; Baker et al., 2000). This marvel has been observed in less than 0.2% of all angiosperms, commonly manifesting as exceptionally high foliar concentrations (>1000 μg/g dry weight) of one of these elements in the leaf dry matter (Pollard and Baker, 1997). Commonly, these plant species known as metal accumulators are predominantly herbaceous and generally occur on substrates high in content of these accumulated elements. Host soil environments are commonly serpentine, characterized with high levels of heavy metals and magnesium, usually depleted in plant macronutrients, but surprisingly supports highly specialized floras (Brooks, 1998). As of present, there are still many metalliferous parts of the tropics in which no plant collections have been undertaken, thus resulting to very limited analytical work on this area. As presented by Proctor (2003) and Reeves (2003), these sites include parts of the Philippines and Indonesia. In same paper, it has been estimated that the Philippine ultramafics (referring to the geological formations containing high Mg/Fe ratios) make up around 5% of the country’s land area. With the prior knowledge that these land areas support large assemblages of extreme nickel hyperaccumulators and nickel accumulators, the researcher conducted this study. In this paper, the researchers collected and taxonomically identified the species found in metal rich soils of Manicani Island, and conducted a field semi-quantitative screening for nickel accumulation (among the plants encountered) on site. The abovementioned field screening test was adapted from the works of Baker et al. (1992) and Fernando et al. (2014). The field screening involved thoroughly washing of the leaf samples with distilled water, crushing these in a mortar and pestle, and then testing with filter paper previously soaked in 1% of the nickel specific colorimetric reagent, dimethylglyoxime, dissolved in 95% ethanol. The formation of pink or purplish red color indicated exceptionally high (above 1,000 μg g-1) concentration of Ni in the dry plant matter

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Source : Taxonomic survey of nickel accumulating plants in a mining site of Manicani Island, Guiuan, EasternSamar, Philippines