babak motasharezadeh

In order to investigate the effect(s) of biologic and organic fertilizers on light consumption efficiency in growing maize-bean mixture, an experiment has been conducted in the form of split plots in a randomized complete block design with 12 treatments. Main plots, containing different fertilizer systems in four levels, include 30 kg/ha urea, Azotobacter, vermicompost, and Azotobacter + vermicompost, and the subplots contain cultivation compound of pure maize and pure bean being 50% maize + 50% bean, 60% maize + 60% pinto bean, and 80% maize + 80% pinto bean. Results show that leaf area index, dry matter accumulation, and light consumption efficiency of maize have been significantly higher than pure culture. The highest light use efficiency is related to the combined use of Azotobacter and vermicompost in mixed culture of 80% maize + 80% pinto beans with an average of 2.29 g / MJ, which increase light use efficiency by 63%, compared to 30 kg/ha of pure culture. Also, the highest dry matter, related to the mixed culture of 60% maize + 60% pinto beans, belongs to the amount of 1728 g/m2, which increase the dry matter accumulation by 16%, compared to pure culture. In general, the combined composition of organic and biologic fertilizers in intercropping has the ability to compete with urea chemical fertilizer in terms of mechanistic indicators of plant growth analysis.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the tolerance of various plant species to heavy metals in oil polluted region of Pazanan Gachsaran. Three zones with various distances from highly polluted area were selected including 0 to 500 m, 500 to 1000 m and 1000 to 1500 m from pollution sources. Thirty plots of 2×2 were established in each transect and their vegetation characteristics were measured. Fifteen soil samples were collected and ICP- OES Instrument was used to measure Ni and Pb contents. Translocation Factor, Bio Concentration Factor and Biological Accumulation Coefficient indicators were used to evaluate the potential of 24 plant species from 12 families to absorb heavy metals. Results showed that the concentration of total and exchangeable soil Pb and Ni varied significantly between the various pollution zones. Xanthium spinosum L. ¡ Alhagi camelorum¡ Sinapis arvensis L.¡ Calotropis procera L.¡ Stipagrostis plumosa ¡Avena fatua L and Cynodon dactylon have Hyperaccumulator characteristics for Pb absorption Stipagrostis plumosa¡ Calotropis procera L.¡ Xanthium spinosum L.¡ Centaurea iberica¡ Sinapis arvensis L. ¡ Stipa capensis and Cynodon dactylon were identified as plant species with high accumulating potential for Ni. According to the results, some plant such as Stipagrostis plumosa¡ Calotropis procera L. and Sinapis arvensis L. have high potential for phytoremedation purposes and can be recommended in soil, contaminated soil containing Ni and Pb.

There are many remediating methods for the polluted soils but only phytoremediation is a cost effective, environmental friendly, aesthetically pleasing approach that is most suitable for many countries. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of native plants for phytoremediation of contaminated soils with lead, zinc, cadmium and nickel in the rangelands around National Lead & Zinc Factory, Zanjan, Iran. Sampling was done at 11 sites on May, 2014 and plant samples were collected from 14 native plant species. Three soil samples were taken at each site. Soil samples were taken from the rooting zone. Extraction of Pb, Zn, Cd and Ni from plants was done by acid digestion. Plant samples were digested in the di-acid mixture (3:1) of nitric acid (HNO3) and perchloric acid (HClO) and soil samples were digested with 4M HNO3 acid. Metals of Pb, Zn, Cd and Ni were extracted from plant and soil samples were determined using Inductively Coupled plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy “ICP-OES”. In general, the results showed that no hyperaccumulators of Pb and Zn were identified in the area. All plants were classified as low lead accumulators, excluder and moderate accumulators, low zinc accumulators or excluders; though Pb and Zn concentrations in the plants were higher than standard range. Standard range of lead and zinc in rangeland plants is 0.2-20 and 1-400 mgkg-1, respectively whereas the species of Brassica juncea and Scariola orientalis were classified as Cd hyperaccumulators and Scariola orientalis and Echium amoenum were classified as Ni hyperaccumulators. The normal value of Cd and Ni in these plants were 0.1-2.4 and 0.02-5.0 mgkg-1, respectively. Thus, these native plants had an implication of carrying out phytoremediation in the rangeland soils around National Iranian Lead & Zinc Factory, Zanjan.

Increasing pollution in water and soil has caused large environmental problems. The contamination of soil and water resources with various organic and inorganic compounds is important because of the close relationship between living organisms and nutrition, in terms both of environmental and human health, due to their direct involvement in supplying food for living organisms. This study was done with the purpose of introducing and investigating rangeland plants, namely Stipagrostis plumosa, Calotropis procera and Medicago sativa, under two types of treatments - urban waste compost and biochar - at three levels (0, 1 and 2 percentage) under greenhouse conditions for the remediation of contaminated soils with heavy metal Ni. The soils used in this study were collected from the traditional petroleum-contaminated Pazanan in Gachsaran. This experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with 5 replications. After a six-month planting period, the aerial and underground parts of plants have collected and some soil important characteristics and plant morphological properties and metals were measured. ICP-OES was used for Ni measurement. For statistical analysis of the measured data, an analysis of variance was applied using SPSS software with comparison of data from the Duncan test. The translocation factor, remediation factor and biological aggregation factor were all addressed for assessment of the plants’ potential. Results showed that the amount of TF Ni in S. plumose was greater and the translocation factor higher than one and significantly greater than for C. procera and M.sativa. According to this result, the amount of TF in S. plumosa is greater than one, as S. plumosa with phyto-extraction can be attracted during the procedure and the extraction of nickel from the soil. C. procera had the highest RF for nickel under the biochar 1 and 2 percentage treatment with a rate of 0.08, when the least amount of RF was found for S. plumosa and the control sample with rate 0.02. Results showed that Biochar and urban waste compost treatments increase both soil pH and EC compared to the control treatment. The results indicated that biochar 2 % has the highest amounts of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus among all treatments. Mean comparison showed that the 2% urban waste compost treatment had the highest percentage of organic carbon and the control treatment showed the lowest percentage of soil organic carbon. Mean comparison indicated that CEC in the biochar 2 % treatment was the highest and in the control treatment was the lowest. The results indicated that the effects of treatments on morphological characteristics are significant, the treatments used in this study having increased the stem length, root length, root volume, root dry weight, shoot dry weight and total dry weight compared to the control treatment. Generally speaking, the biochar 2 % treatment led to the highest root length, stem length, root volume, root dry weight, shoot dry weight and total dry weight. Generally, S. plumosa is an appropriate plant for absorbing and extracting Ni through phyto-extraction, while the biochar 2% treatment demonstrated the highest effect on promoting the phyto-remediation of Ni. Therefore, according to these results, S. plumosa is an appropriate plant for Ni remediation in soils contaminated by petroleum products.

Copper (Cu) and Zinc (Zn) are essential micronutrients that are classified as heavy metal. These elements play structural and functional roles in many metabolic processes in plants.In order to investigate the effect of different levels of Cu and Zn on some growth parameters, Cu and Zn concentration, essential oil content and yield thisresearch was conducted in afactorial experiment as completely randomized design (CRD) with three levels of copper (0, 5 and 25 mg/Kg CuSO4) and zinc (0, 10 and 50 mg/Kg ZnSO4) in three replicate in a calcareous soil under greenhouse condition. Results showed that, the main effect of Cu and Zn of root, Chlorophyll index(SPAD) and essential oil yield had significant effecton the Cu and Zn concentration in shoot and leaf area.The maximum Value of Leaf area (2935.13 Cm2) was obtained in Cu and Zn at 5 + 10 mg kg -1and minimum amount (2061.57 Cm2) in Cu and Zn 25+50 mgkg -1.The maximum concentration of Cu in shoot was obtained in Cu25Zn10(25.53 mgkg-1) and maximum concentration of Zn in Cu5Zn50(153.42 mg kg -1). The highest essential oil yield (101.12 and 105.73 mg pot-1) was obtained in 5 mg Cu Kg -1 and 10 mg Zn Kg -1, respectively. The results of this experiment seems to Low concentrations of Cu and Zn instimulate growth, biomass and essential oil yield of basil herbs while high concentrations it can cause some toxic effects.