Mining has contributed to South Africa’s development, but its legacy has left more than 6000 abandoned sites, with Brakpan in South Africa among the most affected areas. This study assessed heavy metals and naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) in the Brakpan mine wasteland in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Soil and water samples from the area were analysed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS...

The utilisation of water hyacinth for production of biogas is considered to be a solution to both its control and the global renewable energy challenge. In this instance, an investigation was conducted to evaluate the potential of water hyacinth inoculum to enhance methane production during anaerobic digestion (AD). Chopped whole water hyacinth (10% (w/v)) was digested to prepare an inoculum consisting mainly of water hyacinth...

Despite root microecology playing critical role in plant growth and fidelity, relatively few studies have focused on the link between the microbial communities and root metabolome in the aquatic macrophytes under heavy metal (HM) pollution. Using high-throughput metagenomic sequencing, targeted metabolomics and community-level physiological profile analyses, we investigated the symbiotic associations between Phragmites austral...