COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF PHYTOACCUMULATION POTENTIAL OF MUSTARD ANDWHEAT GROWN IN NICKEL CONTAMINATED SOIL-A PHYTOREMEDIATION APPROACHHEMANTA KUMAR PATRA, NILIMA PATNAIK, DEEPAK KUMAR PATRA, SRINIVAS ACHARYA AND CHINMAY PRADHANAbstract Nickel is an essential trace element for plant growth, but high concentration of this metal severely affected the plant growth, photosynthetic pigments, proline, total amino acid, ascorbic acid and carbohydrate contents and activity of antioxidant enzymes. The remediation of nickel from contaminated soil is a challenging task for sustainable agriculture. The experiments were undertaken with the application of varied concentration of nickel to assess the nickel accumulation and translocation potential of hyper accumulator (mustard) and non-hyper accumulator plant (wheat). The results indicated that wheat accumulated more nickel in roots but mustard plant transported more amount of nickel from roots to shoots. The experiment also showed the impacts of nickel toxicity on the growth, JIP test parameters and biochemical changes of the above plants. The results indicated an increasing trend of total nickel and proline content in wheat and mustard plant with increase in nickel concentration, while the pigments, protein, amino acids, ascorbic acid, carbohydrate contents and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters decreased in both wheat and mustard plants. The total accumulation rate and transportation index value of wheat and mustard also increased with the increase in nickel concentration. The comparative assessment of phytoaccumulation potential of mustard and wheat grown in nickel contaminated soil is an attempt to determine the phytoremediation abilities of two crop plants which are usually grown in the adjoining mine and industrial locations. |