Absorption of Hazardous Pollutants by a Medicinal Fern Blechnum orientale L.

Table 1

Concentrations of heavy metals in the surface soils (mean ± SD, mg·kg⁻¹ DW, 𝑛=10) at the polluted site and unpolluted site. Background values for the selected heavy metals in the forest soils of Guangdong province were also presented.

Metal	Polluted site	Unpolluted site	Background value^b
Cu	80.75±3.03^∗a	3.69±0.72	9.63±2.66
Zn	721.45±18.26^∗	19.58±4.01	32.52±1.83
Mn	1017.26±68.65^∗	44.82±11.20	110.89±2.18
Pb	965.58±252.57^∗	33.76±9.32	24.06±1.96
Cr	928.63±103.19^∗	39.64±9.27	39.08±2.07
Cd	7.17±1.46^∗	0.085±0.014	0.03±2.54
As	21.89±1.48^∗	8.62±0.55	9.31±2.47
Hg	1.25±0.12^∗	0.10±0.06	0.051±1.76

^aAn asterisk (∗) indicates a significant difference (𝑃 < 0.01) between the two sites according to a paired sample 𝑡-test; ^bbackground values in forest soils in Guangdong province [13].