Laboratory Germination Experiment for Assessing the Phytotoxic Effect of Arsenic on the Growth Attribute of Different Crops

Abstract

Arsenic (As) pollution is a major environmental and agricultural issue across the world. Due to industrialization and over exploitation of ground water are the two most important factors for the occurrence of arsenic in the water. The irrigation of arsenic contaminated water poses threat not only to the plant system ultimately it affects all the living forms on the global. Early germination of seedlings is affected by the concurrent increase in As exposure in agricultural fields. The arsenic in very low levels also brings damage to the plant system phenotypically and metabolically. This study was carried out to evaluate the germination performance, initial growth characteristics and chlorophyll content of different crops viz., rice, maize, black gram, groundnut and tomato in response to the different level of As concentration (0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 10, 20, 40 and 60 mgL-1) in the growing solution. Growth metrics in all crops were reduced as As content was increased. Among these crops rice was most tolerant to the level of 60 mgL-1 of As concentration compared to other crops. The current study's findings revealed that tomato was most susceptible to As concentrations, whereas rice was the most resistant to As stress.