I was inspired by Casey’s presentation last week about the current war's environmental effects between Russia and Ukraine. I mentioned during the Q&A section of her project how sunflowers have the ability to absorb radiation and thought it was worth looking into to see if that is already a practiced method used previously. I think it would be a worthy method in helping contribute to cleaning up the soil that has been contaminated in Ukraine. "Sunflowers are what environmental scientists call hyperaccumulators– plants that have the ability to take up high concentrations of toxic materials in their tissues" (Beauchemin). Because of this ability held by the flower and other root systems alike, it can absorb any pollutants in the soil. The only other option we had in place for contaminated soil would be to instead get rid of it. We have already used this new planting method for lead contamination in the past and could potentially be applied to the land in Ukraine. Here is the link to the article that gave me some more information on the topic of sunflowers being used to clean up the soil. It's a quick read, and I highly recommend it! Thank you for reading.
https://gardencollage.com/change/sustainability/scientists-using-sunflowers-clean-nuclear-radiation/