Distribution of Heavy Metal Content in Plants and Soil from a Korean Shooting Site

In this research we determined the levels of heavy metals in soil and metal-accumulating plants from a D military shooting site in the Kyungkido district of Korea. The data obtained may be useful in the development of methods for the efficient phytoremediation of contaminated soil. The total Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn concentrations in the soil were found to be 1.67-5.04 mg/kg, 52.51-106.26 mg/kg, 37.24-90.32mg/kg, and 111.45-188.19mg/kg, respectively. These results show that the soil is contaminated with Cd and Cu, and this contamination is particularly severe in the case of Cd because of its high bioavailability (25-57% of the total metal in the soil is exchangeable). The high concentrations of heavy metals in the shoots of Persicaria thunbergii and Artemisia princeps var. orientalis indicate that these plants (all perennial herbs) accumulate heavy metal efficiently. Further, these plants were found to contain more Cd in its shoots (＞60% of the total metal found in the plant) than any other plant; these results indicate that these native species are particularly suited to use in Cd phytoextraction.