Simulation of soil heavy metal pollution environmental stress on plant growth characteristics in the presence of wastewater

Abstract

Soil pollution was simulated by means of artificial heavy metal enrichment, in the presence of treated wastewater, and its effect on the growth characteristics of Beta vulgaris L. (red beets) i.e. on the dry matter yield, and on beet quality expressed in terms of dry matter heavy metal, nitrogen and crude protein content, was investigated in a greenhouse pot experiment. Twelve treatment combinations of heavy metals mixtures composed of Zn, Mn, Cd, Co, Cu, Cr, Ni, and Pb, with each one metal participating in the mixture at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 mg kg-1 were applied, respectively. It was found that the increase of soil DTPA extractable heavy metal concentrations reflecting high soil pollution, decreased statistically significantly the beet dry matter (dm) yield, but increased the metal and the, the nitrogen concentrations, and consequently, contributed statistisically significantly to the increase of beet crude protein yield.