The influence of two levels of artificial Cd soil contamination (2 and 20 mg Cd kg-1 of soil) on the weight of oat plants, chlorophyll content in leaves, rate of photosynthesis, stomatal conductivity and transpiration rate was researched in a pot experiments with Avena sativa L. Another objective was to detect the effect of cadmium contamination of soil on the content of cadmium in the dry mass of oat panicles, stems, upper green and bottom yellow leaves and roots. The soil contamination was applied in the forms of nitrate Cd(NO3)2, chloride CdCl2 and sulphate CdSO42-. High correlation was found between the measured levels of photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductivity and transpiration rates, but no correlation occurred between these levels and the cadmium content in leaves. In the variants with Cd contamination, insignificantly higher levels of photosynthesis rates were observed in the measurements than in the zero variant. A 10-fold higher Cd application dose significantly manifested itself by a higher content of Cd in all the analyzed parts of plants, including generative organs. A several-fold higher Cd level was found in the roots than in other parts of the plant, whereas the lowest Cd content was observed in panicles. However, the results obtained by measuring the cadmium content in stems and green leaves were not significant. In most treatments, a notably higher Cd content was determined in bottom yellow leaves than in upper green leaves. This indicates Cd accumulation in senescent tissues and its difficult reutilization. The highest variance was discovered in treatments with the accompanying SO42 anion. While estimating the effect of accompanying anions on the Cd content, significant differences were observed only under the higher level of Cd contamination. The increase in the Cd content in bottom yellow leaves after CdSO4 application was significant  when compared with the treatment in which Cd(NO3)2 was applied and insignificant versus the variant with CdCl2. On the other hand, a higher and more significant content of Cd in phtosynthetically active green leaves was measured in the treatment with CdCl2 than with Cd(NO3)2.

19.3.2014