No abstract

Pollution has been on the rise ever since the industrial revolution. In Lebanon, water and air pollution are among the most serious issues that require immediate solutions. Further, soil pollution cannot be excluded since it affects water sources and human nutrition. Soil pollution can happen due to hydrocarbon contamination or inorganic contamination like metal presence. More specifically, there are heavy metals (HMs) that if present above certain concentrations become contaminants to soils and crops. In this work, the use of plants, precisely a hyperaccumulator seedling called poplar, was explored as a remediation technique for cadmium (Cd) and nickel (Ni) contamination in soil. A pot experiment is set up in a greenhouse compartment at the American University of Beirut using synthetically contaminated clay soil to evaluate the efficiency of poplar seedlings in phytoremediation during a period of four months. The use of hyperspectral imaging (HSI) to detect and quantify heavy metals absorbed by different parts of the plants is also being assessed. The results showed that cadmium mostly accumulates in poplar leaves while nickel is found mostly in the roots of the plant, according to the collected data until the present time.