Abstract:
Lead (Pb) is the most common heavy metal contaminant in the environment. Phytoremediation is a promising technology that employs the use of higher plants for the cleanup of contaminated environment. Several plants can serve the purpose of phytoremediation. However, the role of weeds as potential phytoremediation agents has rarely been reported in the literature. As weeds are more tolerant to abiotic stresses so it was hypothesized that these can serve the purpose more efficiently. To test this hypothesis, a pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the phytoremediation potential of five winter weeds, namely wild oat, little seed canary grass, swine cress, nettle leaved goosefoot, and toothed burclover against various levels of lead (control, 100 and 200 ppm). The experiment was performed at a glass house, Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan, in completely randomized design under factorial arrangement with 3 replications. Results demonstrated that efficient Pb uptake was observed by the shoots and roots in contaminated plants. Nettled leaved goosefoot and toothed burclover showed more antioxidant activity under lead stress. On the other hand, little seed canary grass showed a minimum reduction of 25% in shoot dry weight, while nettled leaved goosefoot showed a minimum reduction of 39% in root dry weight under high levels of lead toxicity compared to the control. At a moderate level (100 ppm) of Pb stress, the uptake of Pb was more in little seed canary grass (17 ppm), However, at higher Pb stress (200 ppm), all the weeds were comparable in uptake of Pb from the soil system. It can be concluded that different winter weeds under study are hyperaccumulator plants that can concentrate lead in their different parts, thus they can be used for the remediation of Pb-polluted area.
Page(s):
66-66
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Abstract Book on Second International Conference on Recent Approaches in Plant Sciences (RAPS-23) 4-5 May 2023 , Volume: 0, Issue: 0, Year: 2023
Keywords:
phytoremediation
,
remediation
,
Lead Pb
,
winter weeds