the effect of potassium chloride on cadmium uptake by canola and sunflower in a polluted soil

abstract the use of plants for remediation of heavy metals contaminated soils is an economical, cheap and effective strategy. this research was conducted in order to study the effect of potassium chloride on cadmium uptake and enhancement of it's phytoremediation by canola (brassica napus l.) and sunflower (helianthus annuus l.) in a cadmium polluted soil from angoran in zanjan province. in a randomized complete block design (rcbd), with three replications, four levels of potassium (0(control), 50,100 and 200 mg k2o per kilogram of soil as kcl) was performed and azargoal hybrid variety of sunflower and double zero variety of spring canola separately were planted in pot. the anova results showed that application of kcl treatments have significantly effects (p<0.01) on dry matter production of root and shoot, cd concentration, uptake and translocation factor (tf). in this study the highest amount of cd uptake by sunflower (84.57µgpot-1) and canola (64/10µgpot-1) was obtained by application of 200 mg k2o per kg of soil. the cd translocation factor of canola (2.5) was higher than sunflower (1.6). therefore, based on pot experiment and lab analysis results, these crops are suitable for cd phytoextraction in phytoremediation technology and kcl application can improve phytoremediation efficiency of cadmium polluted soil. more research under field condition can be useful and is recommended.