Effects of biochar and biofertilizer on cadmium-contaminated cotton growth and the antioxidative defense system

Abstract

Consistent use of large amounts of fertilizers, pesticides, and mulch can cause the accumulation of harmful substances in cotton plants. Among these harmful substances, cadmium (Cd), an undegradable element, stands out as being particularly highly toxic to plants. The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of biochar (3%) and biofertilizer (1.5%) to decrease Cd uptake, increase cotton dry weight, and modulate the activities of photosynthetic and peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase enzyme (CAT) in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) grown in Cd-contaminated soil (0, 1, 2, or 4 mg Cd kg−1 soil) in pots. These studies showed that, as expected, exogenous Cd adversely affects cotton chlorophyll and photosynthesis. However, biochar and biofertilizer increased cotton dry weight by an average of 16.82% and 32.62%, respectively. Meanwhile, biochar and biofertilizer decreased the accumulation of Cd in cotton organs, and there was a significant reduction in the amount of Cd in bolls (P < 0.05). Biochar and biofertilizer have a positive impact on cotton chlorophyll content, net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, and intercellular CO2 concentration. Thus, the addition of biochar and biofertilizer promote cotton growth. However, biochar and biofertilizer increased the SOD activity of leaves (47.70% and 77.21%), CAT activity of leaves (35.40% and 72.82%), SOD activity of roots (33.62% and 39.37%), and CAT activity of roots (36.91% and 60.29%), respectively, and the addition of biochar and biofertilizer decreased the content of MDA and electrolyte leakage rate. Redundancy analyses showed that biochar and biofertilizer also improved SOD and POD activities by reducing the heavy metal-induced oxidative stress in cotton and reducing Cd uptake in cotton organs. Therefore, biochar and biofertilizer have a positive effect on the growth of cotton.

Impact of Biochar on the Growth and Physiology of Tomato Grown in the Cadmium Contaminated Soil

“…The combination of low level of Cd and biochar showed significant impacts of biochar on dry weight of leaves while in the presence of high level of Cd the impact of biochar was found slightly. Authors like Coumar et al (2016); Bashir et al (2018); Ghori et al (2019) and Zhu et al (2020) conducted their studies in line with the current research work and found that biochar having various compositions increased the porosity of soil by which absorption of heavy metals like Cd, Cu and Ni was found very effectively. This pattern of translocation of heavy metals then shifted the critical load of such heavy metals in soil as the digestion process of biochar was occurred in the soil.…”

“…Cadmium is one of the greatest threatening components for human health as well as for environment. It is also a needless and nonrenewable component for plants (Zhu et al, 2020). Its existence in the soil is deliberated a thoughtful environmental problem chiefly due to its entrance in the human food chain with hazardous special effects on living entities (De Maria et al, 2013).…”

Role of nanosilicab to boost the activities of metabolites in Triticum aestivum facing drought stress

“…The use of BF also gave positive results in this regard. For instance, the addition of BF and biochar increased the SOD and POD activity to 77.21%, 72.82%, 39.37%, 60.29% in leaves and roots of Gossypium hirsutum (Zhu et al 2020). BF also increased the production of phenolic compounds in Coriandrum sativum (Jiménez-Gómez et al 2020), catalase activity in Capsicum annuum (Gou et al 2020), and glutathione activity in Vicia dasycarpa (Ahmadian et al 2021).…”

Green Remediation And Physiological Responses of Plants To Metal-Contaminated Soils In Jinchang Mining Areas, Western Desert, China

“…Another reason why the D value hypothesis is not valid were as follow. Heavy metals in the pot soils up-regulated the antioxidative defense mechanism in metal stressed plants and it could be used as an effective mean for the induction of metal tolerance in these plants for better growth and phytoremediation (Zhu Y et al, 2020). The ameliorating effects of heavy metals on plants were associated with enhanced activities of antioxidative enzymes (SOD, POD and CAT) and more accumulation of GSH and proline that resulted in reduced lipid peroxidation (lower content of MDA) and less accumulation of H 2 O 2 (Marta M. et al, 2011).…”