Co-Cropping Indian Mustard and Silage Maize for Phytoremediation of a Cadmium-Contaminated Acid Paddy Soil Amended with Peat
Sifan Wang,
Yong Liu,
Khalil Kariman,
Jialin Li,
Huihua Zhang,
Fangbai Li,
Yinglong Chen,
Chongjian Ma,
Chuanping Liu,
Yuzhen Yuan,
Zhiqiang Zhu,
Zed Rengel
Affiliations
Sifan Wang
Guangdong General Station of Agricultural Environment Protection and Rural Energy Resource, Guangzhou 510500, China
Yong Liu
National-Regional Joint Engineering Research Center for Soil Pollution Control and Remediation in South China, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro-Environmental Pollution Control and Management, Institute of Eco-Environmental and Soil Sciences, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
Khalil Kariman
The Institute of Agriculture, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
Jialin Li
National-Regional Joint Engineering Research Center for Soil Pollution Control and Remediation in South China, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro-Environmental Pollution Control and Management, Institute of Eco-Environmental and Soil Sciences, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
Huihua Zhang
National-Regional Joint Engineering Research Center for Soil Pollution Control and Remediation in South China, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro-Environmental Pollution Control and Management, Institute of Eco-Environmental and Soil Sciences, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
Fangbai Li
National-Regional Joint Engineering Research Center for Soil Pollution Control and Remediation in South China, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro-Environmental Pollution Control and Management, Institute of Eco-Environmental and Soil Sciences, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
Yinglong Chen
The Institute of Agriculture, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
Chongjian Ma
Henry Fok College of Biology and Agriculture, Shaoguan University, Shaoguan 512005, China
Chuanping Liu
National-Regional Joint Engineering Research Center for Soil Pollution Control and Remediation in South China, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro-Environmental Pollution Control and Management, Institute of Eco-Environmental and Soil Sciences, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
Yuzhen Yuan
National-Regional Joint Engineering Research Center for Soil Pollution Control and Remediation in South China, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Integrated Agro-Environmental Pollution Control and Management, Institute of Eco-Environmental and Soil Sciences, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
Zhiqiang Zhu
College of Tropical Crops, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
Zed Rengel
The Institute of Agriculture, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
Co-cropping is an eco-friendly strategy to improve the phytoremediation capacity of plants growing in soils contaminated with heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd). This study was conducted to investigate the effects of co-cropping Indian mustard (Brassicajuncea) and silage maize (Zeamays) and applying peat on the phytoremediation of a Cd-contaminated acid paddy soil via characterizing plant growth and Cd uptake in pot experiments. There were six planting patterns (Control: no plants; MI-2 and MI-4: mono-cropping of Indian mustard at low and high densities, respectively; MS: mono-cropping of silage maize; CIS-2 and CIS-4: co-cropping of Indian mustard at low and high densities with silage maize, respectively) and two application rates of peat (NP: 0; WP: 30 g kg−1). When Indian mustard and silage maize were co-cropped, the shoot biomass of Indian mustard plants per pot was significantly (p p p < 0.05) increased shoot Cd removal rate and Cd translocation factor value in the co-cropping systems. Taken together, the results demonstrated that silage maize should be co-cropped with Indian mustard at an appropriate density in Cd-polluted soils to achieve simultaneous remediation of Cd-contaminated soils (via Indian mustard) and production of crops (here, silage maize). Peat application was shown to promote the removal of Cd from soil and translocation of Cd into shoots and could contribute to enhanced phytoremediation of Cd-contaminated acid paddy soil.
