The utilization of wastewater resources is essential for meeting the ever increasing demand for irrigation water, but on the other hand it may lead to adverse health implications by heavy-metal contamination in agricultural production systems. Chemical, physical and biological methods are used to remove toxic metals from soil. Among biological methods, Mycorrhizal fungi can play a role in bioremediation of heavy metal pollution in soil. A factorial CRD experiment was planned involving maize cultivars (hm4, azad uttam ,hqpm1) and mycorrhiza inoculations (M0: Uninoculated; M1: Glomus fasciculatum + Gigaspora sps.;M2: Glomus mossae and M3: Glomus intraradices + Gigaspora sps. + Glomus mossae) to evaluate the performance of different cultivar of baby corn under periurban soil with more than twenty years of irrigation history with waste water. All the mycorrhizal treated plots gave significantly higher dry matter yield than the uninoculated plots. There was also positive correlation between mycorrhizal colonization and dry matter yield. The concentrations of heavy metal in the shoots were significantly higher in no AM treatment but addition of AM fungi confers protections against toxic metals retaining them in the fungal structure. In the present experiment the mycorrhizal mixed inoculum (Glomus intraradices + Gigaspora species. + Glomus mossae) was found to cater important role in metal tolerance and accumulation.
Mycorrhizoremediation, Cadmium, Nickel, Eecosystems
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