Abstract
The study on the ability of microalgae to accumulate heavy metal pollutants from surrounding environments is important in understanding both the basic mechanism and its application in the biotreatment of heavy metal contamination. The present work reports the results on the biosorption of heavy metals of environmental concern namely chromium, cadmium and lead by the living as well as the nonliving cells of the blue green alga Hapalosiphon stuhlmannii Hieron. and the green alga Scenedesmus quadricauda (Turp.) de Breb. The metal sorption was measured under controlled conditions in which the algal cells were exposed over specified time to different metal concentrations in the range of 0.1–15 .0 µg/ml. The metal sorption by both the living as well as the nonliving algal cells generally increased with the metal concentration and followed the Freundlich isotherm model over the concentration range investigated in the experiments. The sorption capacity for the living as well as the nonliving cells of H. stuhlmannii for the different metals was found to be in the order Pb>Cd>Cr, whereas that for the living cells of S. quadricauda was found to be in the order Pb>Cr>Cd and for the nonliving cells, to be in the order Pb>Cd>Cr. Further the sorption intensity for the living as well as the nonliving cells of H. stuhlmannii for the different metals was found to be in the order Cd>Cr>Pb, whereas that for the living cells of S. quadricauda was found to be in the order Cd>Cr>Pb and for the nonliving cells, to be in the order Cd>Pb>Cr. The variations in the metal sorption by the different algal cells were attributed to the varied physicochemical properties of the cell walls to bind the different metals.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Atkins, P.W. (1987) Physical Chemistry, 3rd edition, Oxford University Press, USA.
Bates, S.S., Tessier, A., Campbell, P.G.C. and Buffle, J. (1982) Zinc adsorption and transport by Chlamydomonas variabilis and Scenedesmus subspicatus growth in semicontinuous culture. J. Phycol. 18, 521–529.
Bender, J. and Ibeanusi, V. (1987) Effects of supplements on the bioaccumulation of lead in Anabaena Sp. Bull. Envir. Con. Toxicol. 39, 209–21.
Break, G.S., Malnes, D. and Jensen, A. (1980) Heavy metal tolerance of marine phytoplankton IV combined effects of Zinc and Cadmium on growth and uptake in some marine diatoms. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 42, 39–54.
Burns, R.G. and Slater, H.J. (1982) Experimental Microbial Ecology, Blackwell Scientific, Oxford.
De, P.K. (1939) Role of blue green algae in nitrogen fixation in rice fields. Proc. Roy. Soc. London. 127, 121 – 132.
Fisher, N.S., Bore, M. and Teyssie, J. (1984) Accumulation and toxicity of cadmium, zinc, silver and mercury in four marine phytoplankters. Mar. Ecol. Prog. 18, 201–214.
Fogg, G.E. (1951) Studies on nitrogen fixation by blue green algae II Nitrogen fixation by Mastigocladus laminosus. J. Exp. Bot. 2, 117.
Fogg, G.E. (1961) Extracellular Products, in R.A. Lewin (ed.), Physiology and Biochemistry of Algae, Academic Press, New York, pp. 475–486.
Gadd, G.M. (1992) Microbial control of heavy metal pollution, in J.C. Fry, G.M. Gadd, R.A. Herber, C.W. Jones and I.A. Watsoncraik (eds.) Microbial Control of Pollution, Cambridge Univ, pp. 59–88.
Guanzon, N.G., Nakahara, H. and Nishimura, K. (1995) Accumulation of Copper, Zinc and Cadmium and their combinations by three fresh water microalgae. Fish. Sci. 61, 149–156.
Les, A. and Walker, R.W. (1984) Toxicity and binding of copper, zinc and cadmium by the blue-green alga Chroococcus paris, Water, Air and Soil Pollut. 23: 129–139.
Premuzic, E.T., LIN, M., ZHU, H.L. and GREMME, A.M. (1991) Selectivity in metal uptake by stationary phase microbial-populations. Arch. Envir. Con. Toxicol. 20, 234–240.
Rabsch, U. and Elbrachter, M. (1980) Cadmium and Zinc uptake, growth and primary production in Coscinodiscus granii cultures containing low levels of cells and dissolved organic carbon. Helgol. Meeresunters. 33, 79–88.
Sakaguchi, T., Tsuji, T., Nakajima, A. and Hosikoshi, T. (1979) Studies on the accumulation of heavy metal elements in biological systems xiv Accumulation of cadmium by green microalgae. Eur. J. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 8, 207–215.
Shuttleworth, K.L. and Unz, R.F. (1993) Sorption of heavy metals to the filamentous bacterium Thiothrix strain AI. Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 59, 1274–1282.
Ting, Y.P., Lawson, F. and Prince, I.G. (1989) Uptake of cadmium and zinc by the alga Chlorella vulgaris I Individual ion species. Biotech. Bioeng. 34, 990–999.
Ting, Y.P., Lawson, F. and Prince, I.G. (1991) Uptake of cadmium and zinc by the alga Chlorella vulgaris II Multi-ion situation, Biotech. Bioeng. 37, 445–455.
Vymazal, J. (1990) Uptake of lead, Chromium, Cadmium and Cobalt by Cladophora glomerata. Bull. Envir. Con. Toxicol. 20, 271–275.
Whitton, B.A. (1970) Toxicity of heavy metals to algae — A Review: Phykos 9, 116–125.
Ying, W., Yin, Z.G., Lei, G.I. and Jing, Z. (1994) Accumulation of copper by benthic green algae an example of Enteromorpha linza, in H. Haiyang, L. Zhang, and P. Man (eds), Collect. Mar. Chem., pp. 203–206.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mathad, P., Angadi, S.B., Mathad, R.D. (2001). Metal Sorption by Microalgae for Employment in Biotreatment of Environmental Heavy Metal Contamination. In: Chen, F., Jiang, Y. (eds) Algae and their Biotechnological Potential. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9835-4_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9835-4_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5886-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-015-9835-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive