Thesis (MTech (Horticulture))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2012. / The Diep River is approximately 80 km in length and runs through agricultural land and
urban parts of greater Cape Town, South Africa before entering the Atlantic Ocean, via an
estuary. Generally, metal pollution in South African rivers is not well documented and
using plants to monitor metal bioaccumulation is even less documented. The aim of this
study was to investigate aluminium, iron, copper and zinc metal pollution in the Diep River
and bioaccumulation of these metals in the leaves and stems of the submerged
macrophyte Ceratophyllum demersum L. Furthermore, the effects of bioaccumulated
metals on membrane integrity and chlorophyll content of these plants were investigated.
Site 1 was situated in the upper reaches of the river adjacent to agricultural land, while site
2 was in an urban area, where industrial activities predominate. C. demersum (from an
uncontaminated source) were introduced into the river at the two sites and compared with
one another on a fortnightly basis over a 12 week period. Plants at site 2 were also
compared to existing plants that were naturally growing at the site. Comparisons were also
made between leaves and stems of the plants, to establish the organ of preference
regarding metal accumulation and storage. Samples were digested with nitric acid and an ICP-MS was used to analyse metal
concentrations in the water, sediment and plants. Chlorophyll extraction was done using
dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) and the absorbance values determined using a
spectrophotometer. Chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll contents were
recorded and compared. Cell membrane integrity was determined by leaving plants for 24
hours in deionised water and measuring electrical conductivity and solutes (sodium,
calcium, potassium and magnesium) before and after placement of the plants.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:cput/oai:localhost:20.500.11838/2027 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Erasmus, Deborah Vivian |
| Contributors | Snyman, R. G., Odendaal, J. P., Ndakidemi, P. A., Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Faculty of Applied Sciences. Dept. of Horticultural Sciences. |
| Publisher | Cape Peninsula University of Technology |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/za/ |
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