Effect of drought stress or soil pH on cesium accumulation in Napier grass

Abstract

Radio-cesium (Cs) decontamination e ciency by plants is supposedly affected by environmental conditions. To elucidate the factors in uencing the unstable 137 Cs-decontamination e ciency, we rst examined the in uence of drought or soil pH on Cs accumulation using cesium-133 ( 133 Cs) using Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schum.) grown under pot conditions. The experiment was performed on three different conditions with 150 µM 133 Cs applied to soil: low pH (L-pH, pH = 5.6 ± 0.0), near-neutral pH (N-pH, pH = 6.6 ± 0.1), and the combination of low pH and drought stress (Drought). Drought stress had prominent negative effects on plant height, aboveground dry matter weight (DW above ), 133 Cs concentrations in aboveground or root (Cs above or Cs root ) parts, or 133 Cs total content in the part aboveground (Cs-T). 133 Cs concentration and total content in Drought conditions were reduced by 44.1% and 60.0% aboveground, and 63.6% and 66.0% in root parts compared with counterpart normal soil moisture conditions (L-pH), respectively. Conversely, there were no signi cant effects of soil pH on Cs above , Cs root , or Cs-T in L-pH and N-pH conditions. Chlorophyll uorescence parameters (F v /F m , F v /F 0 ) and the temperature in leaves were negatively affected by drought stress or soil pH conditions. From our results, drought strongly in uenced plant growth and Cs accumulation in plants compared with soil acidity. Therefore, soil moisture appears to be a signi cant factor in maintaining 137 Cs-decontamination e ciency by Napier grass.