{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]],"date-time":"2026-10-13T08:57:14Z","timestamp":1791881834322,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"19","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]],"date-time":"2026-10-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1791417600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]],"date-time":"2026-10-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1791417600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Liaoning Provincial Science and Technology Plan Joint Program Project","award":["2025-BSLH-352"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2025-BSLH-352"]}]},{"name":"Key Tackling Project of Liaoning Provincial Department of Education","award":["JYTZD2023119"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["JYTZD2023119"]}]},{"name":"School\u2013Enterprise Cooperation Project","award":["H2025263"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["H2025263"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Plants"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Electrokinetic (EK) remediation improves contaminant transport in low-permeability soils, but persistent electric fields degrade the soil electrochemical habitat, reducing treatment efficiency. Combining EK with plants may mitigate this deterioration, yet plant selection criteria remain unclear. This study screened tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea), ryegrass (Lolium perenne), corn grass (Zea mexicana (Schrad.) Kuntze), and alfalfa (Medicago sativa) in 60-day EK-assisted remediation of petroleum-contaminated silty clay under periodically reversed polarity. Petroleum removal, current dynamics, and soil physicochemical and biological indicators were monitored. Tall fescue performed best, achieving the highest petroleum removal (20.21%), greatest electrical conductivity, dissolved organic carbon, and field water-holding capacity, and the largest microbial abundance and dehydrogenase activity. Ryegrass performed similarly. Corn grass showed the tallest shoots but ranked third; alfalfa was least effective. Enhancement beyond simple additivity was species-dependent, observed only for tall fescue and ryegrass. Root-length stimulation correlated with remediation performance, while shoot-height response did not. Plants that mitigated electrochemical deterioration and sustained rhizosphere microbial activity were most suitable. Tall fescue is recommended, with ryegrass as a strong competitor. This study provides a transparent multi-indicator screening framework for selecting plants in EK-phytoremediation systems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/plants15193075","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]],"date-time":"2026-10-08T15:16:52Z","timestamp":1791472612000},"page":"3075","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Screening Plants for Electrokinetic Petroleum Remediation: Tall Fescue Outperforms by Mitigating Soil Electrochemical Deterioration"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Peng","family":"Gao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Postdoctoral Station of Agricultural Resources and Environment, College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China"},{"name":"College of Engineering, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Songyan","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Engineering, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Junhong","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Engineering, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Yueyang","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Engineering, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6969-1546","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jiawei","family":"Jing","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Postdoctoral Station of Agricultural Resources and Environment, College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China"},{"name":"Key Laboratory of Arable Land Conservation (Northeast China), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shenyang 110866, China"},{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Efficient Utilization of Soil and Fertilizer Resources, Shenyang 110866, China"},{"name":"Shenyang Key Laboratory of Intelligent Manufacturing of Microbial Fertilizers, Shenyang 110866, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"128738","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhazmat.2022.128738","article-title":"Recent progress on in-situ chemical oxidation for the remediation of petroleum contaminated soil and groundwater","volume":"432","author":"Wei","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. 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