Journal of Bioremediation & Biodegradation
Open Access

Rapid Communication

Estimation of the Seedling Vigor Index of Sunflowers Treated with Various Heavy Metals

Xin Zhao¹, Jin Chul Joo², Dongwook Kim³, Jung-Kul Lee⁴ and Jae Young Kim^1*

¹Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanakgu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea

²Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hanbat National University, Dongseo-daero 125, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34158, Republic of Korea

³DOWOO Environment and Agriculture Technology, 408 Moving Techno Gwan, Wonkwang University, 460 Iksandae-ro, Iksan, Jeonbuk 54538, Republic of Korea

⁴Department of Chemical Engineering, Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea

*Corresponding Author:

Jae Young Kim
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering
Seoul National University
1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanakgu
Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
Tel: +8228808364
Fax: +8228732684 E-mail: jaeykim@snu.ac.kr

Received April 25, 2016; Accepted May 05, 2016; Published May 10, 2016

Citation: Zhao X, Joo JC, Kim D, Lee JK, Kim JY (2016) Estimation of the Seedling Vigor Index of Sunflowers Treated with Various Heavy Metals. J Bioremed Biodeg 7:353. doi:10.4172/2155-6199.1000353

Copyright: © 2016 Zhao X, et al. This is an open-a ccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

In order to quantitatively describe the relative effect of the concentrations of heavy metals (i.e., Cd, Pb, Zn, and Ni) on the germination and seedling growth of plants, the seed germination tests were conducted using sunflower seeds treated with various heavy metals, and a mathematical model to estimate the seedling vigor index (SVI) is proposed. From the results of germination tests, a decrease in the seed germination percentage with an increase in the heavy metal concentration was observed, and the inhibitions of seedling growth were clearly detectable above certain critical concentrations (e.g., 50 mg-Cd/l, 50 mg-Ni/l, 100 mg-Zn/l, and 1,000 mg-Pb/l). According to both the IC50 and a1 values, the resulting order of phytotoxicity for the heavy metals on sunflower seed germination was Cd>Ni>Zn>Pb. The SVI estimation model developed in this study rigorously explained the relationship between the heavy metal concentration and the SVI values. Thus, SVI values for a certain plants can be, a priori, obtained, with the heavy metal concentrations in the aqueous phase without performing the germination tests. Although the coefficients of SVI estimation model changed from different species of plants, the empirical SVI estimation model derived from theoretical background can be utilized for other species of plants.

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