Switchgrass Summary

http://The article “Switchgrass naturally removes toxic PCB pollution from soil,” talks about how switchgrass can help the toxic levels of Polychlorinated biphenyls also known as PBCs. This chemical was used widespread by many industrial factories and was banned by Congress in 1979, but it still lingers in soil severely in some parts of the United States to this day andvery toxic to living creatures. Researchers have found that when swithcgrass is paired with a PCB-oxidizing microorganism also known as Burkholderia strain LB400, it can decrease PBC levels in the soil close to 50 percent in six months. They found that this organism naturally decreases PCB, but with the help of switchgrass the degrading of this toxin is increased. Another benefit that this grass has is that switchgrass was at one time a dominant grass species on North American Prairie. …show more content…
The soil function that is in connection to this article is the production function. The soil supports the growth of the grass which allows it to be able to assist the PCB-oxidizing microorganism in decreasing PCB. The microorganism in the soil is encouraged by the switchgrass to act more effectively which in a sense protects the grass from the toxic chemicals. Without the support of the soil or production function of soil, the switchgrass would not be able to grow successfully which in return could not be paired with Burkholderia strain LB400 and decrease the PCB levels in the