Effect of copper on the photosynthesis and growth of Eichhornia crassipes

Abstract

Although copper is essential for plant growth and development and plays an important role in many physiological processes, excess copper, resulting from industrial development and population expansion in the recent decades, leads to environmental pollution and has been a cause of wide concern for the adverse effects on photosynthesis, metabolism and growth of plants. The growth properties (e.g. fresh weight, root length, height), photosynthetic properties (e.g. gas exchange, chlorophyll a fluorescence, chlorophyll content) and the physiological index (e.g. activity of antioxidant enzymes and osmotic regulators) of Eichhornia crassipes were assessed under various Cu2+ concentrations in hydroponic experiments. The growth of E. crassipes was negatively affected by Cu2+ treatments, especially at higher Cu2+ concentrations; the Cu2+ treatments resulted in decreased photosynthesis because of a decrease in leaf chlorophyll content and damage to PSII functions, except the oxygen‐evolving complex. The physiological tolerance of E. crassipes to Cu2+ relies on osmotic regulation, anti‐lipid peroxidation and improved antioxidant properties. The results indicate that E. crassipes could be considered as a phytoremediation agent for Cu2+ pollution in aquatic environments. However, the benefit of E. crassipes for Cu2+ removal in a highly polluted aquatic environment will be limited, but it will be effective in remediating sites with low pollution (≤5 mg·l−1). The present results could provide not only a basis for understanding the effects of pollutants on photosynthesis in plants under heavy metal stress but also provide a basis for choosing plants for phytoremediation.

Intercropping of Pennisetum sinese with Lolium perenne improved phytoextraction of heavy metal from soil

“…Compared with monocultured plants, the average accumulation of Pb, Cd, Cu, and Zn in the leaves, stems, and roots of P. sinese and the shoots and roots of L. perenne increased under intercropping in soil contaminated with heavy metals. Our results are similar to the studies (Lin et al 2018; Jin et al 2021 a , 2021 b ), but not similar to Pietrzykowski et al (2018). This may be due to the fact that P. sinese and L. perenne root exudates can change the forms of heavy metals and lead to the increasing heavy metal absorption by plants (Li et al 2002).…”

“…In the present study, the contents of Pb, Cd, Cu, and Zn in each part of P. sinese and L. perenne were positively correlated with the treatment levels of Pb, Cd, Cu, and Zn for each planting method, and the contents of Pb, Cd, Cu, and Zn in each part of the two intercropped plants were significantly higher than that of the monocultured plants. In general, the levels of heavy metals absorbed by plants are proportional to the levels of heavy metals in the environment (Lin & Jin 2018; Jin et al 2021 a , 2021 b ). However, it was also reported earlier that there is no significant correlation between the concentration of heavy metals in the soils and aboveground parts of purple moor‐grass in the most heavily contaminated zones (Pietrzykowski et al 2018).…”

“…Phytoremediation is a mild, efficient, and environmentally friendly method for removing heavy metal contaminants from soil or water (Lin et al 2018; Jin et al 2021 a , 2021 b ). However, the efficiency of removing heavy metals from the environment is a vital factor to consider when deciding which phytoremediation material to use.…”

“…Many plants can be used for heavy metal phytoextraction, e.g. grapevine (Chen et al 2019), Eichhornia crassipes (Jin et al 2021 a , 2021 b ), Wedelia trilobata (Lin et al 2018). In the past, most of the experiments, whether in field experiment or pot‐culture experiment, were performed using the monoculture method (Cui et al 2018; Hu et al 2018; Wen et al 2018).…”

Biological Nanofertilizers to Enhance Growth Potential of Strawberry Seedlings by Boosting Photosynthetic Pigments, Plant Enzymatic Antioxidants, and Nutritional Status

“…There are also some measurements where there were no significant differences between Cu and Se. These improvements in seedling growth may be attributed to both Cu and Se as plant essential micro-nutrients that have direct and indirect roles in several plant physiological processes [ 55 ], as well as preventing plant damage from environmental stresses and promoting photosynthesis [ 56 , 57 ]. The positive impact of nanofertilizers was confirmed by Shalaby et al [ 22 ], as well as in studies on strawberry [ 33 , 35 ] and rosemary [ 54 ].…”