Determination of Morphological and Physiological Changes of Ornamental Cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. acephala) against Boron Toxicity in Phytoremediation

Abstract

Boron toxicity in agricultural lands limits plant breeding as a plant nutrition problem. Some plants are able to tolerate high levels of heavy metals at potentially toxic doses, accumulate them in their bodies and remove them from the soil. In this study, it was aimed to determine the morphological and physiological responses of ornamental cabbage in phytoremediation against boron toxicity. This study was conducted under controlled greenhouse conditions, 4 different boron doses (0, 10, 25, and 50 mg kg-1 B) were applied to 2 different soil structures (acidic (S1) and alkaline (S2) soils). Toxicity symptoms were appeared at 50 mg kg-1 B. At alkaline soil, plant weights and visual properties of plants were found to be low in quality. Results show that as the boron dose increased, shoot-root fresh and dry weight, stomatal conductance, chlorophyll content, relative water content (RWC) were decreased. Boron accumulation in the shoot, root and whole plant was at 50 mg kg-1 B. As a result, it is understood that ornamental cabbage used for decontamination of boron element by phytoremediation method for the first time in this study. We suggest that it has a potential to as hyper-accumulator plant for the remediation of boron-contaminated soil.