Response of wheat and barley seedlings on soil contamination with bromides

Environmental pollution is becoming one of the most important global problems. Understanding the main factors affecting accumulation of toxic trace elements in consumed crops is of particular value. Unfortunately, possible toxicity of many trace elements is still poorly studied. The development of measures on identification of new potentially toxic trace elements is critical for high quality and safety of food. In the research, we performed greenhouse pot experiments with two major crops, wheat and barley, that were grown in the soil contaminated with bromides of ammonium and neodymium. The concentrations of elements in the plants and soil were determined by ICP-MS/ICP-OES after leaching the samples with tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide. Additionally, variations in the biomasses and concentrations of pigments in the plant leaves were studied. Although wheat and barley are botanically similar and were grown under the same conditions, concentrations of several elements in the plants were rather different. Both wheat and barley were capable of accumulating high concentrations of bromine (Br) when the plants grow in the soil contaminated with this trace element, but demonstrated different response on the soil contamination. The Br concentrations were always higher in barley, while the concentrations of pigments in barley leaves were lower than in leaves of wheat. During first days, biomass of the plants grown in the soil contaminated with bromides was slightly lower than biomass of the wheat and barley grown in uncontaminated soil. However, with time the bromides exhibited positive effect on the plant biomass.