International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—Phytoremediation is becoming a potential method for remediation of heavy metal contaminated soil. The aim of this study is to discuss whether the sorrel absorbs copper (Cu) from the soil, and whether arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi （AMF） inoculation enhances its capacity of Cu uptake. The experiment was conducted in plastic pots with three treatments: control, 600 mg/kg Cu, and 600 mg/kg Cu plus 10 g AMF. The results showed that the sorrel accumulated Cu when planted in Cu contaminated soil. Furthermore, the more uptake Cu, the more nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) was absorbed. When the sorrel was under copper stress, its peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) activities increased, while superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity decreased compared with the control. Chlorophyll (Chl) content decreased under copper stress, but no significant differences were observed in malondialdehyde (MDA) content. Although Cu stress inhibited the activity of soil urease, it didn’t affect activities of soil cellulose, soil sucrase, and soil catalase. It also showed that AMF inoculation promoted the growth of sorrel, enhanced the capacity of Cu, N, P, and potassium (K) uptake, but it didn’t affect MDA and Chl content, POD activity , and CAT activities of sorrel. However, SOD activity was inhibited a little bit. The results also showed that AMF enhanced the activity of soil urease, inhibited activities of soil cellulose and soil sucrase. But it didn’t influence the activity of soil CAT. It concluded that this sorrel was a Cu accumulating plant and AMF inoculation improved its capacity of Cu uptake.

Index Terms—Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), copper contamination, heavy metal, phytoextraction, phytoremediation.

The authors are with the Forestry College, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, 471003, China (e-mail: fenghua123668@126.com).

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Cite: Fenghua Wang, Guangyuan Li, Jia Guo, and Shuangchen Chen, "Effects of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Inoculation on a Wild Type Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) under Copper Stress," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 676-680, 2016.