Copper-Crop Relationships in Maize Cropping System as Influenced by Coal Application and Magnetization of Cu-Contaminated Irrigation Water

ABSTRACT

Copper (Cu) is an essential micronutrient that both deficient and excess concentration of this element can cause damages to plants. A greenhouse trial was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of brown coal application and magnetization of Cu-contaminated irrigation water on dry matter yield and Cu distribution in maize tissues. The greenhouse pot experiment was a factorial trial arranged in a completely randomized design with three replicates. The results obtained showed that water contaminated with Cu-sulfate or nitrate significantly increased mean shoot dry matter by 1.27 and 1.21 times, as compared to that of control (distilled water). Magnetized water (MW) increased Cu concentration in plant tissues, decreased yield biomass, translocation factor (TF), translocation efficiency (TE) and caused illusive increase in phytoextraction efficiency (PE) of Cu-sulfate. Brown coal had no significant effects on shoot Cu concentration but significantly decreased root Cu concentration. As well as it increased TF; due to the decreases of root Cu concentration, and not to the increases of shoot Cu concentration. According to the results, gradual application of Cu via irrigation of maize with Cu contaminated water resulted in an increase in maize biomass. However, magnetization not only did not improve maize growth but also had a detrimental effect on growth parameters.

KEYWORDS:

• Copper
• brown coal
• magnetic water
• phytostabilization
• maize

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to appreciate Shiraz University for providing facilities.