Study of the Enhanced Phytoextraction of Cadmium in a Calcareous Soil

Abstract

Heavy metals such as cadmium mainly enter in the environment and ecosystem as a result of human activities. This study was conducted in order to evaluate the ability of bacterial inoculants to enhance efficiency of phytoextraction in a calcareous soil. Three plants (Amaranthus retroflexus, Helianthus annus and Medicago sativa), along with three levels of inoculants and four levels of Cd were evaluated. The experiment design was factorial with three replications. The ANOVA results showed that application of inoculants led to significant increase (P<0.01) of cadmium concentration in plant’s root and shoot.Furthermore, as cadmium concentration increased in different treatments, fresh weight of plant’s root and shoots decreased in all treatments but, weight reduction of plant’s organs was less in treatments with inoculants application. The amaranthus highest amount of absorption, translocation of Cd to shoot, Translocation factor (TF) and Cd phytoextraction. Thus, amaranthus among studied plants is more appropriate for phytoextraction of cadmium.