Effects on Growth, Productivity and Biomass Quality of Miscanthus x giganteus of soils contaminated with heavy metals

The aim of this work was to study the effects of different heavy metals on growth, productivity andbiomass quality of Miscanthus x giganteus. The plants were placed in pots, where of soils were contaminated,differently, with Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, Hg and Cr. For each metal, two levels of contamination were tested. The resultslead to the conclusion that in terms of the productivity and in what concerns the height of the plants, there weresignificant differences among the plants obtained in pots with the different heavy metals contamination. Cd, Cu andHg were the metals that negatively affected, more significantly, the productivities obtained. In contrast, Miscanthusshowed high tolerance to Ni, Pb, Zn and Cr soil contamination. There was a significant influence of those heavymetals contamination on the uptake and distribution of phosphorus in the Miscanthus biomass, but not on nitrogencontent. Ash content was also influenced by soils heavy metals contamination. Overall, Miscanthus is able to removeand accumulate heavy metals from contaminated soils, but the highest proportion of those metals taken up by plantsremain in the rhizome and roots.