Varsha Tiwari, Beena Sharma, Amit Dubey
The present study is an attempt to explore a possible relationship, the individual and interactive effects of lead and copper on seed germination behavior and seedling growth at seedling stage. All the studies were conducted on control and heavy metal treated seeds. Healthy seeds of uniform size were sorted, sterilized and soaked for 12 hours in the respective heavy metal solution. The seeds were then kept for germination in sterilized petriplates lined with sterilized Whatman No.1 filter paper. 20 seeds were kept in each petriplate. The heavy metal treatments of the seeds were given as 0.05, 1.0, 10.0 and 100 ppm concentrations of Cu and Pb separately as well as in different combinations. The result of this study showed that increasing concentrations of heavy metals (Cu and Pb) inhibited seed germination and limited seedling growth. Both metals have exerted a harmful effect on seedling growth. The combination of copper and lead ions at the low concentration had no effect on seed germination, but higher concentration caused the reduction in seed germination. Moreover, copper has more toxic effect than lead at high concentrations. These findings can be used practically for selection and for application with caution of pesticides with high concentrations of copper and lead. It could be helpful to improve the plant growth security in polluted soil.
Seed germination, seedling growth, vigor index, tolerance index, lead and copper