Abstract
The response of several plant species to heavy metal
contaminated soils was evaluated using plant bioassays with
a soil substrate. A natural soil was collected from
Dinwiddie County, Virginia and soil analysis was performed.
The plant species, Lolium multiflorum, setaria italica and
Trifolium rep ens latum, Robinia pseudoacacia, Andropogon
gerardi, Asclepias syriaca, Echinacea purpurea, Rudbeckia
hirta and Festuca rubra were grown in to determine the
response to cupric and cadmium chloride in soils (mg Cu/kg
soil). A few plant species were grown in small pots in a
plant growth chamber for 28 days using control, 10, 30, 100
and 300mg Cu or Cd/kg soil. Germination proved to be less
sensitive than root length. S. italica had highest ECSOs.
In eu 20.7 and 15.3 in Cd. All plant species were grown
for 7 days in 0.3, 1.0, 3.0 10.0, and 30.0mg Cu/kg soil and
in control. Germination was not effected by metal
concentrations in most species (p=0.07-0.6), except
T.repens latum, R. hirta and F. rubra at 30mg/kg
(p=0.0007). Root length was significantly effected by Cu
concentrations for almost all species (p=0.0001-0.0112).
Setaria italica had the highest EC50 at 10.86mg/kg. Robinia
pseudoacacia root length was not significantly affected
by CU concentrations. The other species had EC50s ranging
from 3.74-7.51mg/kg. Both inhibition and stimulation of
root growth were observed.
Preliminary studies regarding germination rates,
fungicides and rangefinding are included.
|
next to an author's name indicates that all files or directories associated with their ETD are accessible from the Virginia Tech campus network only.
![[VT]](http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/images/ETD-db/restricted.gif)
