Prospects of in situ nano-mycorrhizo-phytoremediation (NMPR) strategy of decontaminating HM-contaminated aquatic freshwater ecosystems – A review
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Wetlands and aquatic ecosystems are an important part of the ecological system and national resources, but their contamination poses a major environmental threat to human health that needs an effective and affordable solution for its management now and the future. Pollution of our freshwater environments with toxic materials from man-initiated activities such as mining and smelting of metalliferous ores, use of agricultural chemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides, and fossil burning, have dramatically increased since the onset of industrial revolution, and now requires the taking of immediate steps to restore derelict land and water environments. Waterlogging-tolerant vetiver grass, Chrysopogon zizanioides roots secrete phytochelating nano-molecules in their rhizospheres which translocate HMs from the HM-contaminated waters into their cortices, and the extraradical mycelium (ERM) of their root-associated indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) also secrete HM-affinity-transporters-nano-molecules in the rhizospheres of the host plant. AMF also secrete Glomalin-nano-molecules which help bind the rhizosphere soil. Vetiver grass and its AMF associations can be used as potential bio-tools for decontaminating polluted aquatic ecosystems and wetlands and exploited by using them in planted-constructed wetlands (CWs) to remove heavy metals from wetlands and aquatic ecosystems in a process termed as Nano-Mycorrhizo-Phyto-Remediation (NMPR). The mycorrhiza is one of the most important symbioses on earth, linking the rhizosphere (and its microbiota and the root systems of aquatic macrophytes and they play an important role in the growth of plants by increasing their tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses on contaminated soils and waters. AM fungi should be considered as ideal participants of CW systems for the phytoremediation of HM-contaminated waters.
Language: English
Topic: Heavy metals in environment
Subfield: Pollution
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7162527003