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  3. Researcher Sees Trees as a Clean, Green Solution Here’s an idea that will grow on you: using trees and other plants to reduce

Researcher Sees Trees as a Clean, Green Solution Here’s an idea that will grow on you: using trees and other plants to reduce

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问题    Researcher Sees Trees as a Clean, Green Solution
   Here’s an idea that will grow on you: using trees and other plants to reduce water and ground pollution — and reducing overall cleanup costs. That’s the goal of environmental engineer Joel Burken, an assistant professor of civil engineering at UMR, who is leading a team of graduate and undergraduate students in this nontraditional research effort. "Who would have thought that trees could help purify water?" says Burken. But that’s exactly the goal behind a relatively new idea in environmental engineering. Known as "phytoremediation", the method involves using plants to clean up pollutants.
   "I hope that phytoremediation will revolutionize the process of remediating contaminated sites," Burken says. "The effort could replace the current methods now being used to cleanse contaminated soil and groundwater. " Some of those current methods of water purification consist of pumping, heating or even baking the ground to extract the pollutants. "All of those measures, especially pumping, are incredibly expensive," Burken says. "In contrast, phytoremediation uses living plants to reduce contaminated soil, sludge and groundwater in a less expensive way. " Phytoremediation has also been expanded to provide safer methods of cleaning metals, crude oil, and landfill leachates, Burken says.1 Working in conjunction with the University of Connecticut and Ecolotree Inc. , an environmental engineering company, Burken plans to cut costs by using poplar trees to remove the pollutants from water tables that may be used for drinking water. One method involves incorporating genetically enhanced microbes with the planting of the trees. This type of " genetic engineering" gives the microbes the ability to break down naturally, Burken says. University of Connecticut researchers do the actual genetic engineering part of the process, creating the enhanced microbes. Burken carries on the process by inoculating cuttings from the trees. Burken tests the trees to see the impacts of the genetic engineering. The research has proven to be beneficial, Burken says. "In one case, 1, 700 poplar trees were planted on a contaminated U. S. Navy site. The efforts resulted in saving the site about $ 5 million in the clean-up process. " While "there are still many questions left unanswered about exactly why this process works, it seems to work," says Burken. "But we don’t know exactly why. It is just a simple but elegant process that does the job. "
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答案 树木被科研人员视为环保清洁剂 你将逐步形成这样的想法：用树木和其它植物来降低水和地面污染——同时降低环保的总费用。这是UMR市政工程专业助理教授、环境工程师乔尔-伯肯努力的目标，他正领导着一个由研究生和本科生组成的研究小组主攻这个非传统的研究项目。伯肯说：“有谁考虑过树木有助于水的净化?”但这正是这个相对新颖的环境工程学的观念要达到的目标。这叫作“植物矫正法”，是用植物来清除污染物。 伯肯说：“我希望植物矫正法将给治理污染场所的方法带来一场革命。这种方法能取代目前用来清理受污染土壤和地下水的数种通用的方法。”在几种通用的水质净化方法中，有抽吸法，加热甚至把地面烘干以抽出污染物法。伯肯说：“所有这些措施，特别是抽吸法，费用高得令人瞠目。与此相比，植物矫正法是用生长中的植物来减少土壤、淤泥和地下水中的污染物，费用低廉，”伯肯说。不仅如此，植物矫正法还可以为清除金属、原油及垃圾沥出的废水提供更安全的方法。伯肯正与康涅狄格大学和Ecolotree股份有限公司(一家环境工程公司)合作，准备用白杨滤除可能用作饮用水的地下水中的污染物，以降低成本。一个方法是，植树时加入几种基因受过强化的微生物。伯肯说，这种“基因工程”使得微生物具有自然分解的能力。康涅狄格大学的研究人员承担了该项目中具体的基因工程部分——制造基因强化微生物。伯肯利用嫁接树枝的方法继续这项研究。伯肯对树木进行测试，了解基因工程对树木的影响。伯肯说，已经证明研究是有益的，“其中一例是，把1700棵白杨种在一个受污染的美国海军基地，结果在清理污染的过程中该基地节约了约五百万美元。”伯肯说，尽管“在为什么这种方法能奏效的问题上，仍有很多问题有待解答，但它好像是有效，不过我们确实不知道个中缘由。这是一个简单的方法，但也是一流的、有效的方法。”
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