Anitha Kunhikrishnan (PhD Student) 
University of South Australia

Project Title
Revegetation of metal contaminated soils using recycled water

Biography
Anitha did her Bachelors in Microbiology and Masters in Biotechnology at Bharathiar University, Tamil Nadu, India. She worked under the Indian Government's “Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability – Implementation of PVP Legislation” scheme through the Depatment of Seed Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Tamil Nadu. There she was involved in the varietal characterization of crops. Presently Anitha is a Ph.D scholar for CERAR through the University of South Australia.

Start Date
June 2007

Project Details
Increasing efficiencies in crop management and the continuing increases in crop yields has increased demands on water resources for irrigation purposes. In a number of countries including Australia, decrease in groundwater levels has been compounded by prolonged periods of drought or seasons of low rainfall. In addition, predicted climate impacts from global warming also point to further stresses on water resources, thus reducing the amount of water available for both irrigation and the environment. There are a number of ways by which the pressure on fresh water resources for irrigation use can be mitigated. One possible approach is the recycling of wastewaters and drainage water that can be used in the place of other fresh water sources for irrigation. However recycled water can act both as a source and sink for heavy metals: as a source - recycled water contains a range of heavy metals and the concentration of these metals depend on the level of treatment; when recycled water is used for irrigation it increases the heavy metal content of soils; and as a sink - various organic and inorganic components in recycled water immobilize metals through adsorption, complexation and precipitation thereby affecting their bioavailability. The proposed study aims at better understanding of the effect of recycled water on the soil properties in relation to metal interactions and mechanisms of recycled water-induced metal (im)mobilization and bioavailability.