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Abstract
To investigate the phytoextraction potential of Populus alba L. var. pyramidalis Bunge for cadmium (Cd) contaminated calcareous soils, a concentration gradient experiment and a field sampling experiment (involving poplars of different ages) were conducted. The translocation factors for all experiments and treatments were greater than 1. The bioconcentration factor decreased from 2.37 to 0.25 with increasing soil Cd concentration in the concentration gradient experiment and generally decreased with stand age under field conditions. The Cd concentrations in P. pyramidalis organs decreased in the order of leaves > stems > roots. The shoot biomass production in the concentration gradient experiment was not significantly reduced with soil Cd concentrations up to or slightly over 50 mg kg–1. The results show that the phytoextraction efficiency of P. pyramidalis depends on both the soil Cd concentration and the tree age. Populus pyramidalis is most suitable for remediation of slightly Cd contaminated calcareous soils through the combined harvest of stems and leaves under actual field conditions.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 51178209 and 91025015), and the Scholarship Award for Excellent Doctoral Student granted by Lanzhou University, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in Lanzhou University (lzujbky-2012-141), and the Supervision of PhD. Degree Fund of Chinese Ministry of Education (No. 2012021111018).