Above- and Belowground Development of a Fast-Growing Willow Planted in Acid-Generating Mine Technosol.

Surface metal mining produces large volumes of waste rocks. If they contain sulfide minerals, these rocks can generate a flow of acidic water from the mining site, known as acid mine drainage (AMD), which increases trace metals availability for plant roots. Adequate root development is crucial to decreasing planting stress and improving phytoremediation with woody species. However, techniques to improve revegetation success rarely take into account root development. An experiment was conducted at a gold mine in Quebec, Canada, to evaluate the establishment ability over 3 yr of a fast-growing willow ( Sx64) planted in acid-generating waste rocks. The main objective was to study root development in the soil profile and trace element accumulation in leaves among substrates varying in thickness (0, 20, and 40 cm of soil) and composition (organic carbon [OC] and alkaline AMD treatment sludge). Trees directly planted in waste rocks survived well (69%) but had the lowest productivity (lowest growth in height and diameter, aerial biomass, total leaf area, and root-system size). By contrast, the treatment richer in OC showed the greatest aerial biomass and total leaf area the first year; the thicker treatment resulted in the greatest growth in height and diameter, aboveground biomass, and root-system size in both the first and third years. Willow root development was restricted to soil layers during the first year, but this restriction was overcome in the third year after planting. Willow accumulation factors in leaves were below one for all investigated trace metals except for zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd), and strontium. For Cd and Zn, concentrations increased with time in willow foliage, decreasing the potential of this willow species use for phytostabilization, despite its ability to rapidly develop extensive root systems in the mine Technosol.

Pulmonary toxicity of the insecticide fenitrothion in the rat following a single field exposure.

The pulmonary toxicity of the organophosphorus insecticide fenitrothion was evaluated following a single exposure of rats to the field formulation, at the site of an aerial spraying. Four groups of 40 Sprague-Dawley rats (including a control), set in wood enclosures, were placed under the aerial lines of the spraying aircraft. The degree of exposure was monitored at the ground level by air sampling and visual evidence of droplet activity deposition. Plasma pseudocholinesterase activity and pulmonary alveoli ultrastructure were used as indices to the fenitrothion exposure. Rat lungs were examined under light and electron microscopy at days 3, 7, 21, 60 and 180 after the exposure. Although a few signs of toxic lung injury were observed at days 3 and 7 there was no cholinergic crisis nor an effect on the pseudocholinesterase activity within 12 h in the exposed animals, when compared with controls. The alveolar toxic reaction was limited to small and discrete foci, and was entirely reversible within a period of 2 months. On a morphological basis it is thus concluded that a single field exposure to fenitrothion did not induce any permanent change in the alveolar area of the rat lung.