Effects of heavy metal toxicity on growth, symbiosis, seed yield and metal uptake in pea grown in metal amended soil

Abstract

Soils contaminated with heavy metals present a major threat to sustainable agriculture. Understanding the effects of these metals on pea productivity will be useful. We studied the effects of cadmium, chromium and copper used both separately and as mixtures, on over all growth of pea plants inoculated with Rhizobium sp. Among the metals, copper was most toxic for pea plants and decreased the seed yield by 15% at 1,338 mg kg(-1) compared to control plants whereas cadmium and chromium in general, increased the measured parameters. The metal accumulation in roots and shoots at 90 d and in grains at 120 d differed among treatments.