Phytoremediation potential of organochlorine pesticide contaminated soils with Miscanthus x giganteus: comparing freshly spiked with legacy contaminated soils

This study compares the dissipation dynamics of DDT metabolites and HCH isomers. It evaluates the plant uptake ability and phytotoxicity of Miscanthus x giganteus (Mxg) in legacy contaminated soils (i.e., decades-long contamination) and freshly spiked soils.
DDT and its metabolites, as well as HCH isomers, demonstrated clear dissipation differences across both soils as a result of the age of the contaminant. The initial and final concentration of OCPs of interest show that Mxg did not have any role in the dissipation of the compounds. A root-to-soil ratio (R/S) (fold change) was calculated in order to assess the accumulation ability of the plant. HCHs resulted in a higher R/S ratio when compared to DDTs in both legacy contaminated and freshly spiked soil, and the uptake was isomer-selective. The phytotoxicity observed in this study has not been reported before.
The data given here is the concentration of DDT metabolites (for both o’chloro and p’chloro isomers) and HCH isomers (α-, β-, γ- and δ-) in the researched soil contamination and in the root system of the plant. A headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS–SPME–GC–MS) measurement was carried out. A Trace 1310 gas chromatograph (Thermo Fisher Scientific, San Jose, CA, USA), a CombiPAL autosampler (CTC Analytics AG, Zwingen, Switzerland) assembled with a SPME fibre assembly, and an ISQ 7000 mass spectrometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific) were used. The data was obtained in µg/L and then converted to µg/kg (Microsoft Excel, version 2504). About all performed calculations, treatments were considered as a single group.