Abstract
Heavy metals are considered important pollutants found in sewage sludge. That is why sewage sludge can have a limited use as
fertilizer in agriculture. Some aquatic plants can remove nutrients and heavy metals from media as sewage sludge or
contaminated sediments. In this paper, we investigated the effects of different concentration levels of two heavy metals (Ni and
Cd), respectively, 10, 35, 85 and 20, 50, 150 mg/kg in sedimentary media on plant uptake of Ni and Cd, considering three aquatic
plants: Typha latifolia, Phragmites australis and Scirpus tabernaemontani. These uptake abilities were investigated at the 60-
days of experiment through a completely random design. Results showed that Ni and Cd accumulation in root and rhizome was
higher than similar amounts for the stem and leaf of the three plant species. Also, with the increase in the concentration levels of
the two heavy metals in sediments, their accumulation in plant tissues was increased. Cd accumulation in belowground tissues of
T. latifolia was 8.43, 24.97 and 70.5 mg/kg in dry weight at the 10, 35 and 85 mg/kg metal concentration in the simulated
sediments respectively. Also, Translocation factor (TF) and Bioconcentration factor (BCF) for Ni and Cd were calculated for the
three plant species. The results showed that TF and BCF were 0.44, 0.32, 0.26 and 0.58, 0.48, 0.42 for Ni respectively in T.
latifolia, P. australis and S. tabernaemontani at the higher value of the concentration. The values of TF and BCF were 0.34, 0.21,
0.24 and 0.83, 0.68 and 0.34 for Cd in the three plants, respectively. According to our results, the accumulation of Ni and Cd in
the above-ground and below-ground tissues in T. latifolia was the highest. Also, our results are important for bioindication,
bioremediation and biomonitorng of aquatic ecosystems and heavy metals removal from sewage sludge.