| Abstract [eng] |
The world growing population with the increased anthropogenic activities such as mining, smelting, mismanagement of metal waste, disposal of manure, wastewater and sewage sludge, indiscriminate use of phosphate fertilizers and pesticides has resulted in widespread contamination of cadmium (Cd) and other heavy metals (HMs) in the environment (Dutta et al., 2021; Haider et al., 2021; Yan et al., 2020). In addition, a steady rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration has driven a dangerous rise in global land surface temperature, termed global warming, which is driving an alarming increase in the frequency and intensity of different abiotic stresses, such as drought (Rivero et al., 2021). Consequently, at this time, key ecosystems and ecological processes are simultaneously experiencing pollution-related and climate-related stresses. Because HMs are non-biodegradable, and immobilization may only reduce their bioavailability temporarily, as the soil environment may change and they may become mobile again for plants to take up, the most appropriate technique for removing Cd from contaminated soils is to remove Cd from the soil (Yan et al., 2020). Phytoextraction is such a plant-based technique where plants are used to translocate HMs from soil into the aboveground harvestable biomass (Khalid et al., 2017). Unlike conventional physical and chemical methods, phytoextraction has been considered to be among the safest, cleanest, cost–effective, sustainable, and least disruptive options for treating sites contaminated with recalcitrant pollutants like HMs (Diarra et al., 2021). Brassica napus is an emerging biofuel crop that can be used to produce biofuel when grown in degraded soil and has many features suitable for the phytomanagement of Cd-contaminated soils (Rizwan et al., 2018). However, the ongoing climate change with the increasing drought periods is bound to have an impact on phytoextraction performance, yet there remains little research on this. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate Cd phytoextraction efficiency by B. napus under drought stress in current and future warmer climate conditions. |
