The purpose of this study is to comparatively investigate the plant uptake, accumulation and translocation behaviors of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as priority pollutants in soil contaminated with oily sludge. The influence of different oily sludge application doses on the uptake of contaminants was studied together with the profile of individual PAH in roots, straws and leaves of winter wheat. Pot experiments were conducted using oily sludge application doses of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 percent, respectively. The total PAHs contents of control soil and oily sludge were 16.96 and 3504.66 μg/g, respectively. Analysis for the contents of the 16 PAHs was carried out with a HPLC-UV using plant tissue samples obtained at the 265th day of growth. The total PAHs contents in treated winter wheat were 9.02-334.81 ng/g for roots, 8.45-336.52 ng/g for straws and 10.70-406.32 ng/g for leaves. In addition to 5% of oily sludge dose, the total PAHs content in leaves was always highest under other doses of oily sludge application. With respect to individual PAH, the content did not show a significant plant tissue related trend. However, both the total content and individual content of PAHs in treated winter wheat tissues did increase with increasing oily sludge application dose. Another analysis for the control soil indicates that the degradation rate of PAHs was significantly enhanced by winter wheat after 265 days of growth based on the residual concentrations of PAHs in planted and unplanted soils.
