Roles of rhizosphere in remediation of contaminated soils and its mechanisms

Rhizosphere is a special 'ecological remediation unit' to treat contaminated soils, which contains a great quantity of microorganisms such as fungi and rhizobacteria living with plant roots. Thus, physiological and ecological roles of plant roots to remedy contaminated soils, to accumulate and to solidify heavy metals, to absorb and degrade organic pollutants in rhizosphere were illustrated, and the function of mycorrhizospheric fungi to absorb, barrier and chelate heavy metals, to degrade organic pollutants through their metabolism activities, the action of rhizobacteria to absorb and solidify heavy metals, to degrade organic pollutants in rhizosphere through their active living activities, and the combined remediation of fungi and bacteria to pollutants in rhizosphere and their relevant mechanisms were explained. It was suggested that the remediation role of rhizosphere was the main part of phytoremediation, and one of the main basic theories to remedy contaminated soils by the activity of green plants and other organisms. The use of hyperaccumulative plants in remedying soils contaminated by some heavy metals would be prospective. It would be one of the important approach to contaminated soils remediation by organic pollutants through the mechanism of screening some special plants whose roots had strong secreting ability to absorb and accumulate dissolvent organic pollutants on the basis of inoculating specific or non-specific fungi and bacteria from the rhizosphere. This will be a developing trend of research on the remediation of contaminated soils by organic pollutants.