Kamila’s F-root-ful Contribution to Reclaiming Contaminated Lands

March 22, 2021

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Kamila performing measurements of plants and root systems in rhizoboxes. Photo credit: personal archive.

UA SRC trainee Kamila Murawska-Wlodarczyk is pursuing a PhD degree in Environmental Science under the direction of Dr. Alicja Babst-Kostecka and Dr. Raina Maier. She wants to apply her interdisciplinary knowledge, and imaging techniques to investigate the adaptation processes of plants exposed to elevated concentrations of metalloids. She just submitted a publication in which she describes the morphological differences and germination performance of seeds of the metal-hyperaccumulating plant Arabidopsis. The paper is titled “Metal contamination and seed microbes affect the seed morphology and reproductive strategy of Arabidopsis halleri”.

Last month, Kamila started an experiment that is a part of UA SRC Project 5 “Importance of Capping Material Properties in Remediation of Mine Tailings”. She is testing 30 types of non-contaminated soil materials of different quality as potential capping materials for mine tailings. She aims to identify the most important properties of the capping materials that are related to robust plant establishment and growth. The plant used in this study is Atriplex lentiformis - a shrub native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico that can grow in harsh environmental conditions, such as saline or alkaline habitats. In this experiment, she is using a non-invasive phenotyping tool - rhizoboxes - transparent boxes positioned at an angle of 45 degrees, placed on a platform of her design. This allows her to effectively observe the roots while maintaining normal plant growth. Monitoring of root architecture will provide valuable information about plant development and adaptation. By linking soil properties to the root growth, microbiome composition and plant performance in different capping materials, Kamila will be able to identify key factors to help optimize phytoremediation techniques used in reclamation of mine tailings.