Species Peculiarities of Weeds in Terms of Heavy Metal Accumulation

Abstract

Control over the accumulation of heavy metals (HM) in agrophytocenoses is an urgent environmental problem. An obligatory component of all field agrophytocenoses are various agrobiological groups of weeds. The purpose of this work was to study the features of HM accumulation in the weed component of agrophytocenoses. The study was carried out in agrophytocenoses of the Yaroslavl region, represented by winter and spring crops, legumes, corn, industrial crops, and a wide variety of weeds. According to the data of the route survey of crops in the Yaroslavl region, the weediness of agricultural plants was 31–101 pieces per square meter. Weeds differed in the content of HMs: by 5.8 times for Zn; more than 14 times for Cd and Pb; and about 6 times for Cu. Dandelion medicinal and creeping wheatgrass expressed the barrier function of the roots in relation to all of the studied elements. The contribution of weeds to the general elimination of trace elements and heavy metals by plants of agrophytocenoses is insignificant.
 Keywords: weeds, heavy metals, trace elements, barrier function of roots

Do New-Generation Recycled Phosphorus Fertilizers Increase the Content of Potentially Toxic Elements in Soil and Plants?

“…The variability of PTE content in weed biomass within a single experiment and between experiments resulted from the species composition and structure of weed com-munities, along with differentiation related to weed developmental stages, competitive ability, and susceptibility to the herbicide applied. Weed biomass from the wheat field under PP− conditions was dominated by Chenopodium album, Fallopia convolvulus, and Raphanus raphanistrum (unpublished data), which are known to accumulate large amounts of As, Cr, Ni, and Zn [135][136][137][138][139]. The reduction in the share of these species in the community due to the herbicide use (PP+) contributed to a decrease in the content of the aforementioned PTE in the overall biomass of weeds and was manifested by a significant difference in relation to weed biomass under PP−.…”

“…Galal and Shehata [146] reported from their experiment with rice irrigated with water canals receiving wastewater discharges that weeds, apart from limiting the growth and production of rice crops by accumulating large amounts of nutrients, had captured heavy metals from the soil and thus improved the quality of rice grains. However, Zubkova et al [139] claim that the contribution of weeds to the general elimination of trace elements and heavy metals by plants of agrophytocenoses is insignificant.…”