Аннотация:The phytotoxicity test is widely used to evaluate various environmental objects: for screening phytotoxicity of chemicals, soil filtrates or solid waste, pesticides, biocides, fertilizers and other research applications. This test measures the decrease (or the absence) of seed germination and growth of plants “in contaminated soils” in comparison to germination and growth in a “reference” soil. It can also be used to determine the impact of chemicals on the plants by “spiking” of the reference soil with a chemical or a water sample. Acute express phytotests as well as chronic phytotests are used to assess the effects of soil remediation after the application of sorbents or other soil improvers.
According to the standard methodology, several species with mandatory presentation of monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants are recommended. The most commonly used are monocotyl Sorghum saccharatum (sorghum), Avena sativa (oats) and dicotyledonous Lepidium sativum (watercress), sativa radish (radish) and Sinapis alba (mustard) known for their rapid seed germination and root growth.
It is known that living systems differ in sensitivity to different impact. And the result depends on the set of test species. Can siderate species which are resistant to chemical contamination be used for adequate soil quality screening? In terms of sensitivity, we compared tree species of plants in experiments with metal polluted soils and with applying fertilizers.
Seed germination, root and shoot length of Sinapis alba, Avena sativa, Raphanus sativus seedlings were estimated in acute phytotests using eluate and applicative experimental design.
Several types of soils were used in phytotoxicity tests : artificial soil according ISO 11268-2 (as a “reference” soil), poor-humus agrozem and rich-humus chernozem (European part of Russia) and urbanozem (soil samples from the territory of Moscow)
Control and metal-spiked (650 mg/kg Pb + 1100 mg/kg Zn + 660 mg/kg Cu) soil samples were analyzed as well as soil samples with amendments - additions of lignohumate and a mineral-humate-bacterial preparation (Eminekst, LLC Biosphere company).
In decreasing sensitivity in experiments with different substrates, the order of test plants can be represented as follows: metal polluted rich humus soil (chernozem): Avena sativa> Raphanus sativus> Sinapis alba; metal-polluted poor humus soil (agrozem): Raphanus sativus> Avena sativa >Sinapis alba; urbanozem and artificial soil with amendments: Raphanus sativus> Avena sativa >Sinapis alba .
Comparing the sensitivity of standard test cultures is important for optimizing sets of sensitive plant species. According to obtained data mustard it is quite resistant to high doses of heavy metals and excessive concentrations of fertilizers. And, therefore, this must be considered when choosing the seeds to be tested. According to current methods, a set of test plants is formed arbitrarily, which leads to ambiguous conclusions.