Assessment of Lemna gibba L. (duckweed) as a potential ecological indicator for contaminated aquatic ecosystem by boron mine effluent

Duckweeds, as a group, are important early warning indicators for the assessment of contaminated ecosystems due to their propensity to accumulate pollutants. In the present study, we investigated the potential use of Lemna gibba L. (Lemnaceae) as an ecological indicator for boron (B) mine effluent containing B concentration above 10 mg l−1. For this purpose, L. gibba fronds were grown for 7 days in simulated water contaminated with B mine effluent. The important note is that this study was carried out in Kırka (Eskişehir, Turkey) B reserve area, which is the largest borax reserve in all over the world, under natural climatic conditions in the field. The results demonstrated that accumulations of B by L. gibba gradually increased based on the initial B concentrations (10, 25, 50, 100, and 150 mg l−1) of the mine effluent. B concentration in the dry weight of the plant reached 639 mg kg−1 when the minimum initial dosage (10 mg l−1) was applied and 2711 mg kg−1 when the maximum initial dosage (150 mg l−1) was applied during the study. However, significant reductions in their relative growth rates occurred in 50, 100 and 150 mg l−1 initial B concentrations. Results suggest that 25 mg l−1 B concentration in water seemed to be a sensitive endpoint for L. gibba that could be used as a critical bioindicator level of B contaminated water. Following our data, we also constructed a simple growth model under the climatic conditions in this region of Turkey, but in instructive as a worldwide model. L. gibba is, therefore, suggested to be able to use as both an indicator and a phytoremediation tool because of its high accumulation capacity for B contaminated water.

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► We asses the potential use of Lemna gibba as an ecological indicator for aquatic ecosystems contaminated by boron (B) mine effluent within the largest borax mine ecological system in all over the world.
► We evaluate a simple growth model for L. gibba in instructive as a worldwide model.
► B concentration above 25 mg l−1 seemed to be sensitive endpoint for L. gibba.
► We can conclude that tolerance response of L. gibba to moderate B exposures (10 and 25 mg l−1) make it a suitable tool for the phytoremediation of low-level B contaminated water.