Abstract

The usefulness of white cabbage (Brassica oleracea ssp. capitata L. f. alba) for phytoremediation of heavy metals (cadmium and zine) due to the rapid growth and a large biomass of its heads has been already described (Bączek-Kwinta et al., 2011. Kusznierewicz et al., 2012). As the photosynthetic apparatus supplies the whole plant with sugars necessary for various physiological processes and, in consequence, results in the yield, the aim of the study was to estimate the influence of cadmium on the condition of photosynthetic apparatus of cabbage. Total chlorophyll content as well as the fluorescence paraeters of chlorophyll a were established during plants vegetation in greenhouse, in the soil spiked with two cadmium concentrations, whereas Cd content in plants was assayed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. At the beggining of vegation, cadmium triggered a decline in total chlorophyll content. The effect was sustained in plants of early cultivar, whereas it ceased in the specimens of the late ones. The fluorescence parameters of chlorophyll a: Fv/Fm, NPQ and ETR revealed marked changes, differentiated among the cultivars similarly to the pattern of chlorophyll content alterations. The yield of the heads was diminished, but to the lower extent in plants of late cultivars, which accumulated up to 2-fold more Cd than the early one. Hence, late cultivars of cabbage can be useful for phytoremediation of soils contaminated with this element.

Authors (6)