Objective
Well over 4 million hectares of land in Europe are contaminated with heavy metals. These areas are not only unfit for food production and potentially hazardous to human health, but may also be unsuitable for other forms of sustainable economic development. The remediation of these soils by currently available physico-chemical methods is either very costly or impossible. It has become clear that biological approaches to cleaning up these soils would be more effective, more economic. and more environmentally desirable.
To overcome this problem, this proposal will help develop the use of either a special class of pants known as metal hyperaccumulators which can contain very high (up to percent ) concentrations of metals in their small above ground biomass, or non-hyperaccumulating high biomass crop species, and to increase the metal extraction by each. The scientific community agrees that the prerequisites for developing phytoextraction are (a) basic information about the mechanisms by which particularly hyperaccumulator plants access metals in soil and accumulate them in the above ground material, and (b) knowledge of how manage hyperaccumulators or high biomass crops to maximise uptake and-decrease the bioavailable fraction of metals in soils.
To achieve this, we have assembled a group of specialists who will use a fully integrated approach to both the intrinsic plant properties and management factors required.
Our specific objectives are:
(1) to increase understanding of the process of hyperaccumulation, (2) to increase mobilisation and uptake of metals in the rihizosphere of hyperaccumulators or high biomass crops,
(3) to give an improved understanding of the agronomy, and management of metal harvesting crops,
(4) measure the changes in total and bioavailable metals in treated soils and (5) provide some information on: the harvesting and recycling of the metal-enriched biomass, economics and risk assessment of phytoextraction of metals from soils.
A series of field investigations in three European countries will be performed using hyperaccumulating species and a high biomass crop plants. These will cover a range of climate, types of pollution and soils. Experience on the performance of plants under these conditions will be combined in the final outcome of the project.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering waste management waste treatment processes recycling
- social sciences economics and business economics
- social sciences other social sciences development studies development economics
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture agronomy
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
AL5 2JQ HARPENDEN
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.