Literature review on heavy metal pollution in southern Caspian sea basin and phytoremediation as treatment method

This review mainly focused on heavy metal related pollution of the Caspian Sea in the southern drainage basin which is located in Iran, and proposing a remediation method which is suitable for the situation. Total of 150 papers were reviewed for this matter. Seven of the main rivers of the basin were selected and related field studies were reviewed for heavy metals concentration and hazardous risk. Most high-risk metal was reported to be nickel and lead. For the next objective, phytoremediation was chosen to study. Although there was not a common agreement on the type of the plant for this method, but overally phytoremediation was reported to be an effective method for removal of contamination. Beside lack of real situation experiments, there was also lack of attention to the separation timing of plants after remediation. Alongside these two matter, removal technique for the contaminated plants from the site are also a matter for future research.