ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Enhancing Phytoremediation Efficiency Using
Regulated Deficit Irrigation
More details
Hide details
1
Department of Environmental Science, Hebei University of Environmental Engineering, Qinhuangdao, China
Submission date: 2018-03-17
Final revision date: 2018-05-05
Acceptance date: 2018-05-14
Online publication date: 2019-01-18
Publication date: 2019-03-01
Corresponding author
Lili Yi
Hebei University of Environmental Engineering
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2019;28(4):2399-2405
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
In this study, Beta vulgaris L. var. cicla was grown in cadmium-contaminated soil in a greenhouse.
Regulated deficit irrigation was applied using three different irrigation levels (T1: 300 L, T2: 200 L,
T3: 100 L per block during each irrigation event during the organogenesis stage; T1 was the control)
to examine the effects on phytoremediation efficiency. According to the experimental results, the
regulated deficit irrigation treatment (T2) decreased the Beta vulgaris L. var. cicla shoot biomass by
15.8%, increased the Cd concentration in the shoots by 23%, and maintained a constant root-shoot
ratio. By contrast, T3 decreased the Beta vulgaris L. var. cicla shoot biomass by 33.0%, decreased the
Cd concentration in shoots by 9.8%, and increased the root-shoot ratio by 62.8%. The Cd remediation
potential efficiency (PE) of treatment T2 was 5.42 g ha-1 – i.e., 39.7% higher than that of T1 and 61.8%
higher than that of T3. This study indicated that regulated deficit irrigation can be used to enhance Cd
phytoremediation and save water, but should be applied in a suitable way.