Atlas of Contaminated Sites

Trial site, Pojskë, Albania

Pojskë, ultramafic Vertisol (nickel agromining)

A large ultramafic area in eastern Albania. The nickel is natural: it sits in magnesium smectite (1.3% Ni) and serpentine (0.7% Ni) and is highly available to plants. The fields yield little under ordinary crops.

Phytoremediation

Contaminants

Metals

Plants and fungi at this site

PhytoremediationField scale, 2005–

Odontarrhena chalcidica (Alyssum murale)

Bani (Agricultural University of Tirana) with Echevarria, Sulçe and Morel (Nancy) first fertilised wild stands on six 36 m² plots in 2005, then ran five years of trials on 18 m² plots on harvest time, fertilisation, weed control and sowing.

Outcome In 2005 nickel extracted was 25 kg/ha on fertilised plots against 3 kg/ha on the others; plants held up to 9,129 mg/kg of Ni. Over five years, with the crop sown and fertilised, biomass rose from 0.3 to 9.0 t/ha and nickel extracted from 1.7 to 105 kg/ha.

From the literature

Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.

Plants

Fungi

Nearby

Notable case, Mitrovica / Zvečan, Kosovo

Mitrovica (Trepča mining and smelting complex)

212 km

  • Lead

SIN, Puglia

Brindisi

226 km

  • Mercury
  • Arsenic
  • Cadmium
  • Copper

SIN, Taranto, Statte, Puglia

Taranto

294 km

  • Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
  • Dioxins and furans
  • Polychlorinated biphenyls
  • Petroleum hydrocarbons

Phytoremediation

SIN, Puglia

Bari - Fibronit

314 km

  • Asbestos

Sources

  1. Bani et al., In-situ phytoextraction of Ni by a native population of Alyssum murale on an ultramafic site (Albania), Plant and Soil, 2007
  2. Bani et al., Improving the agronomy of Alyssum murale for extensive phytomining: a five-year field study, International Journal of Phytoremediation, 2015

Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.