Arsenic stress on photosynthesis and growth in Ipomoea aquatica

Jagadish Chandra Joardar,Milton Halder,Nishad Afrin

doi:10.14719/pst.2019.6.4.589

Jagadish Chandra Joardar, Milton Halder + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.2019.6.4.589

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Abstract

An experiment was conducted to understand the effect of arsenic (As) on photosynthetic pigments in Ipomoea aquatica leaves, its growth performance and As uptake in edible plant parts. The experiment was designed with three levels of As treatments, viz. 10, 20, and 40 mg As kg-1 soil along with control, and three biological replications. I. aquatica was grown for six weeks after seed germination. Chlorophyll-a, chlorophyll-b, carotenoid, plant height and weight increased at lower rate of As application (10 mg kg-1) in soil. Higher As (20 and 40 mg As kg-1 soil) in soil significantly decreased all the parameters except carotenoid. Both plant height and weight were significantly reduced at 20 mg As kg-1 in soil. Chlorophyll-a and chlorophyll-b content were significantly reduced at 40 mg As kg-1 in soil. Arsenic concentration in plant parts increased significantly at higher As concentration and exceeded the maximum limit of As (0.5 mg kg-1) for vegetables at 20 mg As kg-1 soil and above. Arsenic uptake (µg plant-1) also increased significantly with elevated levels of soil As (40 mg kg-1). Considering the growth performance, I. aquatica should not be recommended to grow where the soil As concentration is 20 mg kg-1 and above.

Highlights

Arsenic is one of the toxic environmental pollutants because of its chronic and epidemic effects on human health through widespread drinking water and taking vegetables/crops grown on As contaminated growth medium
Chlorophylla content in the plant leaves increased significantly (Table 1) with compared to the control at lower As treatment (10 mg kg-1), it was decreased with increasing As concentration in the growth medium and significantly reduced at 40 mg kg-1 As in soil
The significant reduction of both chlorophyll-a and chlorophyll-b was found in plants treated with 40 mg kg-1 As in the growth medium

Summary

Introduction

Arsenic is one of the toxic environmental pollutants because of its chronic and epidemic effects on human health through widespread drinking water and taking vegetables/crops grown on As contaminated growth medium. As is present in soil all over the world depending on the origin of the soil [1]. The background concentration of soil As is approximately 5 mg kg-1 [2]. Non-contaminated soils contain As ranging 0.1–10 mg kg-1 [3]. Bangladesh soil As concentration is higher than this value and it varies location to location. The average soil As concentration in Bangladesh is 12.3 mg kg-1. Different studies documented different As concentration in Bangladesh soil ranges from 0.3 to 56.7 mg kg-1 [4,5,6,7].

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