Application of Lemna minor in site remediation strategies

Pollutants such as radionuclides and heavy metals are present in the environment due to the exploitation of nuclear installations, mining and milling processes, industrial activities (e.g. involving naturally occurring radionuclides), nuclear accidents and the dumping of radioactive waste. Polluted surface waters can become an environmental problem for both aquatic and terrestrial organisms and therefore remediation is needed. Phytoremediation uses the biological processes of living plants (and their associated microbiome) to remove, degrade or stabilise pollutants from their surrounding environment. Phytoremediation is recognised as an efficient site remediation technology for various types of pollutants and can be used as a complementary waste water treatment technique for specific scenarios. Within this PhD project, phytoremediation of water, polluted with radionuclides and metals, using the macrophyte Lemna minor has been systematically studied.