Historical Foundation of Plant and Groundwater Interactions - Introduction to Phytoremediation of Contaminated Groundwater - page 25

Table 1.3 (continued)
Date Significant events in plant physiology Significant events in hydrology

1880 J. von Sachs stated that transpiration of water from leaves was

related to water uptake in the root zone.

J. Lucas first used the term hydrogeology to indicate water under the
ground in The hydrogeology of the lower Greensands of Surrey and
Hampshire.

1882 Charles Darwin reported root uptake of ammonia carbonate.

1886 Forchheimer expanded on Dupuit's concept of regional

groundwater flow using differential equations.

1897 First known use in the United States of the term aquifer appeared in

W.H. Norton's Artesian Wells of Iowa .

First use of P-ET ¼ R by the USGS, in The Water Resources of
Molokai, Hawaiian Islands , by W. Lindgren.

1903 The Danish botanist Christen Raunkiaer introduced the

classification of plants based on the location of buds.

1904 The rhizosphere was described by Lorenz Hiltner.

1912 The first hybrid poplar, P. deltoides P. trichocarpa , was produced.

1922 G.E.P. Smith observed daily groundwater-level changes were

related to peak periods of plant transpiration.

1923 O.E. Meinzer coined the term “phreatophyte” after observing

survival of plants on groundwater in arid areas of the United States.

1927 O.E. Meinzer and W.N. White related root penetration to depth of

water table. Meinzer authored USGS Water-Supply Paper 577.

1930 Van Niel's experiments indicated that oxygen released by plants

comes from H 2 O, not CO 2 .

1932 W.N. White measured groundwater-level changes related to grasses

and trees and created the equation to calculate the volume of
groundwater taken up by plants.

1940 Hubbert used flow nets to simulate groundwater flow between

streams.

1941 Water was confirmed as the source of oxygen released by plants.
1942 Hydrology textbook, edited by O.E. Meinzer, discussed

transpiration with respect to groundwater.

1950 Georges Morel produced plant clones from undifferentiated cells. J.S. Gatewood and others observed groundwater use by salt cedar in

Arizona.

1954 Calvin cycle that depicts the path of carbon from photosynthesis

was revealed.

Textbook Hydrogeology by Davis and DeWiest discussed using
groundwater-level changes to determine water removed by plants.

1966

1967 J. Hem related high chlorides in tree tissue to chloride-rich

groundwater.

1975 R. Chaney reported the uptake of metals by plants grown in sludge.

1978 Groundwater Hydrology, by Herman Bouwer, was published and

specifically described the effect of phreatophytes on groundwater.

1983 First genetically modified plant was created which resulted in a

tobacco plant resistant to an antibiotic.

1986 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) approved the

release of the first genetically modified crop of herbicide-resistant
tobacco.

1989 Term phytoremediation was first used at the Conference on

Hazardous Waste Research .

1990 First phytoremediation project was funded by the Rocky Mountain

Hazardous Substances Research Center.

1991 Professor Ilya Raskin (Rutgers) used phytoremediation in a

Superfund proposal.

1992 H. Sandermann introduced the concept of the green liver as part of a

pesticide-herbicide model that stated plant reactions are more like
mammals than microbes.

1993 S.D. Cunningham and W.R. Berti used phytoremediation in

reference to plant and metal interactions.

1998 S. Rock, USEPA, coined the term phytotechnology.

2003 The topic Phytoremediation , edited by S. McCutcheon and J.

Schnoor, is published

2006 International Phytotechnology Society founded.