Summary: | The present project aimed at measuring plant heavy metal uptake as a function of transpiration rates and dissolved heavy metal level in the soil solution. Two experiment was conducted separately in two season (Spring and Fall 2000). In these two experiments, young wheat plants ( Triticum aestivum) were irrigated with nine different solutions containing Cd and Zn. The study was conducted in two chambers where relative humidity was controlled to obtain two different levels of transpiration rates. Each control chambers contained 27 pots filled with sand and seeded with wheat plants, each nine triplicated pots receiving a different treatment: three Cd treatments with levels of 0.01, 0.10, and 0.50 mg/L; one Zn treatment with level of 25mg/L and four treatment combinations of Cd/Zn with levels of 0.01 Cd/25Zn, 0.10Cd/25ZN, 0.50Cd/25Zn and 0.50Cd/50Zn mg/L. The transpiration rate of the plants was monitored over a period of 30 days, measured from the emergence of the plants by weighing the pots daily. On day 15 and 30, three plants were removed from each pot, to weigh their dry matter production and to analyze their heavy metal uptake. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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