Car breaks are one source of road dust pollution from vehicular traffic. The amount of pollution depends on many factors but areas of high braking such as curves causes the brake pads to heat and increases he deposition of pollutants. These heavy metals, during rainfall, get washed from the road and infiltrate freshwater systems. Some of the pollutants, such as the heavy metals Cu and Zn have been shown to inhibit the biological functions of freshwater organisms, resulting in high mortality rates of fish. Bioswale construction is one way to remove these pollutants before the storm runoff becomes part of the water system. The plants in the bioswales do this through filtering, physically trapping, and/or taking up metals from the storm water. The Reed College bioswale studied in this experiment is built on a heavily trafficked curve and has been in existence for over 10 years. One of the main plants found in the bioswale is slough sedge, a wetland species that is native to the Pacific Northwest and capable of accumulating heavy metals in its roots and leaves. The focus of this investigation is on quantifying the amount of Cu and Zn found in the Reed College bioswale slough sedges and comparing this to slough sedge grown in limited automobile traffic bioswales. In order to test this, samples of roots, above round plant material, and soil were collected from the Reed College bioswale and a non-trafficked bioswale. These samples were dried, digested, and then analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). A comparison to standards and controls results in the quantification of Cu and Zn in the different sample types.

Quantification of Cu and Zn uptake levels in bioswale grown slough sedge using ICP-MS

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