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Phytotoxic Effects of Heavy Metal Contaminated Soil Reveal Limitations of Extract-Based Ecotoxicological Tests

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Abstract

Toxicity of contaminated soils cannot be assessed only by chemical analyses, therefore bioassays are increasingly used. Widely accepted ecotoxicological methods include organisms from all levels of the food-chain but plant-based ones are usually restricted to germination and growth tests. In our study the toxicity of heavy metal contaminated soil samples were examined not only by germination and bacterial tests of their extracts but also by the measurement of physiological parameters of two plant species (cucumber and wheat) that were grown directly on the contaminated substrate. Changes in chlorophyll concentration, stomatal conductance, fluorescence characteristics, and malondialdehyde (MDA) level (showing oxidative damage to lipids in leaves) undoubtedly indicated the mobilisation and toxic effect of contaminants. The results showed that the sensitivity of plant physiological parameters was higher than that of the extract-based ecotoxicological tests. Whereas these latter could not reveal the toxic effect of the highly contaminated soils the plants have reacted in a more complex way and their physiological parameters have changed significantly in all cases validating their use in such studies. The applied measurements also allow quicker and more reliable testing even under field conditions (stomatal conductance) or the detection of a more complex response if detailed analyses is needed (MDA, fluorescence imaging) thus underlining the importance of plant-based methods.

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Acknowledgements

This work supported by the grant ETT 093/2006 of the Hungarian Ministry of Health. The authors would also like to thank the valuable contribution of Dr. Zoltán Szabó and his co-workers at the National Environmental Health Institute (József Fodor National Health Centre-OKK-OKI) for the ecotoxicological tests.

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  1. Veronika Gyuricza

    Present address: Unité de Microbiologie, Université catholique de Louvain, Place Croix du Sud 3, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

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  1. Department of Plant Physiology and Molecular Plant Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. Lane 1/C, 1117, Budapest, Hungary

    Veronika Gyuricza, Ferenc Fodor & Zoltán Szigeti

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  1. Veronika Gyuricza
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  2. Ferenc Fodor
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Correspondence to Ferenc Fodor.

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Gyuricza, V., Fodor, F. & Szigeti, Z. Phytotoxic Effects of Heavy Metal Contaminated Soil Reveal Limitations of Extract-Based Ecotoxicological Tests. Water Air Soil Pollut 210, 113–122 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-009-0228-0

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