الفهرس 
Phytoremediation Potential of AmaranthusOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
EL- Fayoum depression is a green normal oasis located in the Western Desert on the west southern part of Cairo Governorate, 90 kilometers away. It is one of northern Upper Egypt Governorates, bordered by desert from all sides, excluding the east southern part, where it is attached with Beni Suef Governorate.
The temperature in Fayoum varies between 13.2 to 14.2 degrees in January, the iciest month of the year. Relative humidity ranges between 59% in the winter to 74% in the summer. Northerly and east, southern and western winds blow on the depression, with the northerly wind as being the dominant. As for rainfall, it is very scarce, and amounts to approximately 3mm in the winter.
Soil pollution is one of the problems that obstruct sustainable development in the studied regions, posing a threat to the local environment, ecosystems and human wellbeing. Poisonous heavy metals such as Cd, Hg, Pb, as, etc. are common and dangerous pollutants (Batty and Dolan, 2013). Contaminated soil leads to lack of arable land, depriving local communities of economic profits, as well as posing a health risk. Growing concern about the pollution of soil and water resources with heavy metals has been shown in recent years.
Contaminated soil is a universal problem that has both environmental and health implications. The need for sustainable development of contaminated soil has been emphasized by a number of governments. The word ”heavy metal” is generally used to refer to a particular group of elements with metal properties which are often connected with impurity and probable toxicity or eco-toxicity.
Phytoremediation is top appropriate for clear-out over a wide area in which contaminants are present at low to medium concentrations. Research has demonstrated that plants are effective in cleaning up contaminated soil (Wenzel et al., 1999 and Shilev, 2014). Phytoremediation is a universal word for by plants to get rid of, damage, or enclose soil contaminants such as heavy metals. The heavy metals obtainable for plant approval are those present as soluble constituents in the soil solution or those solubilized by root exudates. Higher plants can store heavy metals in different concentrations, but significant differences in metal accumulation exist between and within plant populations.
Amaranthus is explored as one of the locally appropriate plants with potentially good ability to clean soils from both organic and inorganic pollutants. The costs of establishing and harvesting an Amaranth crop are relatively low when compared to conventional crops like wheat (South African Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, 2010). Taking into account its availability and simplicity in cultivating, it was chosen like a suitable study object.
Accordingly, four main objectives of this work were chosen as follows:
1- To survey growth sites of Amaranthus plant in Fayoum Districts;
2- To determine the uptake rate of Cd and Ni by Amaranthus; and
3- To investigate the potential of using Amaranthus in a remediation of heavy metal polluted soils (particularly with Cd and Ni); and
4- To define opportunities and limitations for the design of a phytoremediation experiment on the polluted agricultural soil at EL-FayoumGovernorate