Impacts of root pruning intensity and direction on the phytoremediation of moderately Cd-polluted soil by Celosia argentea

Youjun Tang,Tian Gan,Min Cao,Jinnuo Song,Dan Chen,Jie Luo

doi:10.1080/15226514.2021.2011832

Youjun Tang, Tian Gan + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/15226514.2021.2011832

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Abstract

Root pruning can impact the physiological functions of various plants, which influence phytoremediation. A series of root pruning treatments with different combinations of direction (two-side pruning and four-side pruning) and intensity (10, 25, and 33% pruning) were performed on Celosia argentea L. All two-side pruning treatments, regardless of intensity, decreased the dry biomass of the C. argentea roots at the end of the experiment relative to that of the control. However, the two-side-10% and two-side-25% pruning treatments stimulated the growth rate of the plant leaves significantly by 58.6 and 41.4%, respectively, relative to that of the control, and even offset the weight loss of the plant roots. Contrastingly, the two-side-33% pruning treatment reduced the biomass yield of leaves by 24.1%. For the four-side pruning treatments, the low intensity increased the dry weight of both the plant roots and leaves, while both decreased under high-intensity root pruning. The dry weight, Cd content, pigment level, and photosynthetic efficiency in the four-side-10% treatment were higher than those in the other treatments during the experiment. This study indicates that root pruning with a suitable combination of direction and intensity can positively influence the Cd removal ability of C. argentea.

Highlights

With the development of society and the expanding population, a large amount of contaminants have been discharged into various environmental media (Miao et al, 2017; Zeng et al, 2019)
The major objectives of the current study were to evaluate the impacts of root pruning treatments with different directions and intensities on (1) the biomass yield of plant tissues, (2) the photosynthesis efficiency and transpiration rate of C. argentea, and (3) the Cd uptake capacity and phytoremediation effect of the species
The pH values decreased by 3.3%, 3.3%, 8.2%, 1.6%, 9.8%, 8.2%, and 3.3% in the control, twoside-10%, two-side-25%, two-side-33%, four-side-10%, four-side-25%, and four-side-33% treatments, respectively

Summary

Introduction

With the development of society and the expanding population, a large amount of contaminants have been discharged into various environmental media (Miao et al, 2017; Zeng et al, 2019). Cd has been ranked 7th among the top 20 hazardous materials in the list of the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (Chaturvedi et al, 2019) owing to its detrimental impacts on the physiological functions of cells. Except for those in some microalgae (Park et al, 2007), no biological functions of Cd have been reported. The emission of Cd is strictly controlled worldwide, its contamination in different environments has been worsening, especially in developing nations (Snousy et al, 2019; Sydow et al, 2018). Cd-polluted soil, especially in agricultural land, should be remediated to ensure global food safety and security

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