The effects of soil cadmium (Cd) contamination on Cd accumulation and distribution, growth and physiological responses of sunflower plants were investigated. Plants were subject to six levels of soil contamination (from 2.5 to 15 mg Cd kg/soil) with an untreated control, from the emergence of the cotyledon leaves until the harvest, when plants were at the flower bud stage. An overall increase o...

A forested brownfield within Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA, has soils with arsenic, chromium, lead, zinc and vanadium at concentrations above those considered ambient for the area. Using both satellite imagery and field spectral measurements, this study examines plant productivity at the assemblage and individual specimen level. Longer term growth trends (basal area increase ...

Fruit and leaf of noni (Morinda citrifolia L.) have been used traditionally as food and for medicinal purposes by South Pacific populations since over two thousand years. Recently noni fruit juice became very popular as health beverage worldwide. Manufacturers and distributors of noni juice often praise the high content of minerals and trace elements in conjunction with the geological situation...

Prosopis juliflora is characterized by distinct and profuse growth even in nutritionally poor soil and environmentally stressed conditions and is believed to harbor some novel heavy metal-resistant bacteria in the rhizosphere and endosphere. This study was performed to isolate and characterize Cr-resistant bacteria from the rhizosphere and endosphere of P. juliflora growing on the tannery efflu...

Methane (CH4) oxidation in soil reduces the concentration of this greenhouse gas due to the activity of methanotrophic bacteria. This process is influenced by chemical and physical parameters of soil. We tested the methanotrophic activity of selected mineral soils (Mollic Gleysol, Haplic Podzol, Eutric Cambisol) contaminated with lead (Pb) under different soil water potentials (pF 0; 2.2; 3.2)....

14 To estimate dynamics of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis in heavy metal (HM) 15 phytoremediation, we conducted a literature survey and correlated HM uptake and relative plant 16 growth parameters from published data. After estimating AM feedback responses for these 17 parameters at low and high soil-HM concentration intervals, we determined that the roles of AM 18 symbiosis are characte...

Sites co-contaminated with organic and metal pollutants are common and considered to be a more complex problem, as the two components often have a synergistic effect on cytotoxicity. This study investigated the dissipation mechnisms for pyrene in cadmium co-contaminated soil in which maize (ZEA MAYS L.) was grown in a greenhouse experiment. Results showed the growth response of maize may be aff...

Heavy metal stress is an important factor which may influence plants’ growth and metabolism. The present study investigates the effects of cadmium (soil treated twice/ week with 10, 20 and 30 mM) on the specific activities of phosphatases which might lead to reducing power assay in Barley (Hordeum vulgare L, var 2052) seedling. A significant decrease in the redox potential of shoot compared to ...

The effects of heavy-metal-containing sewage sludge on the soil microbial community were studied in two agricultural soils of different textures, which had been contaminated separately with three predominantly single metals (Cu, Zn, and Ni) at two different levels more than 20 years ago. We compared three community-based microbiological measurements, namely, phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analy...