PJB-2018-959
Amelioration potential of biochar for chromium stress in wheat
Roomina Mazhar, Noshin Ilyas, Muhammad Arshad and Azeem Khalid
Abstract
Chromium is one of the hazardous heavy metals used in tanning industries. Wheat is highly vulnerable to chromium stress. In present study 5ppm-500ppm concentrations of chromium were applied in solution form to elucidate chromium toxicity on wheat seed germination. Two wheat varities (NARC 2009 and NARC 2011) and 1% biochar was used during the experiment. Wheat seeeds continued to germinate till 200 ppm and complete inhibition was observed at 500 ppm. However, the application of biochar improved the germination and growth attributes of wheat seedlings in presence of chromium. Biochar significantly improved the germination percentage upto 100 ppm by 16.8%. In the similar way, seedling root and shoot length was improved significantly by 10%-30% in the presence of 1% biochar. Furthermore, biochar amendment improved the chlorophyll and proline contents upto (9.5%-10%). The superoxide dismutase activity effected greatly the chromium stress and after, application of biochar, resulted in a considerable increase of (13%) at 100ppm as compared to control. The total chromium contents in dry biomass of wheat seedlings was 0.06 ± 0.1 and in presence of 1% biochar the total chromium contents was reduced upto 0.29 ± 1.01. Hence, biochar proved to be an effective amendment for amelioration of chromium effect and improvement of wheat attributes such as germination, physiological and growth condition.
To Cite this article:
Mazhar, R., N. Ilyas, M. Arshad and A. Khalid. 2020. Amelioration potential of biochar for chromium stress in wheat. Pak. J. Bot., 52(4): DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30848/PJB2020-4(19)
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