Soil Microbial Characteristics Under Long-Term Heavy Metal Stress:A Case Study in Zhangshi Wastewater Irrigation Area,Shenyang

Soil samples were collected from Zhangshi Wastewater Irrigation Area in the suburb of Shenyang City,China,an area with a 30-year irrigation history with heavy metal-containing wastewater.The chemical properties and microbial characteristics of the soils were examined to evaluate the present situation of heavy metal pollution and to assess the soil microbial characteristics under long-term heavy metal stress.In light of the National Environmental Quality Standards of China,the soil in the test area was heavily polluted by Cd and to a lesser degree by Zn and Cu,even though wastewater irrigation ceased in 1993.Soil metabolic quotient (qCO_2) had a significant positive correlation,while soil microbial quotient (qM) had a negative correlation with content of soil heavy metals.Soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) had significantly negative correlation with Cd,but soil substrate-induced respiration (SIR),dehydrogenase activity (DHA),cellulase activity, and culturable microbial populations had no persistent correlations with soil heavy metal content.Soil nutrients,except for phosphorous,showed positive effects on soil microbial characteristics,which to a certain degree obscured the adverse effects of soil heavy metals.Soil Cd contributed more to the soil microbial characteristics,but qM and qCO_2 were more sensitive and showed persistent responses to heavy metals stress.It could be concluded that qM and qCO_2 can be used as bioindicators of heavy metal pollution in soils.

Photosynthetic activity and antioxidative response of seagrass Thalassia hemprichii to trace metal stress

This study concerned the accumulation of trace metals in tissues of seagrass ( Thalassia hemprichii) exposed to various concentrations of Zn2+,Cd2+,Pb2+ and Cu2+ for 10 d,and the effect of excessive metals on quantum yield (△F/F′m),photosynthetic pigments and antioxidative enzymes like superoxide dismutase (SOD),guaiacol peroxidase (POD) were also examined.Cadmium was the most highly accumulated metal.Meanwhile,high metals levels led to a remarkable breakdown of photosynthetic parameters.Especially,△F/F′m,chlorophyll and carotenoid were significantly low during prolonged Cu exposure.Besides,△F/F′m was more severely depressed by Cu and Zn than Pb and Cd.However,T.hemprichii had positive response by increasing the activity of SOD and POD.The results indicate that T.hemprichii is the most sensitive to Cu,and the antioxidative protection mechanisms of T.hemprichii are more efficiently activated to avoid damage of Zn,Cd and Pb stress. Finally,due to the high Cd-accumulation and strong Cd-tolerance capacity,T.hemprichii can be used for phytoremediation in Cd-contaminated areas.

Assessment of Castor Plant (Ricinus communis L.) Tolerance to Heavy Metal Stress-A Review

Increased urbanization and industrialization have greatly contributed to the emission of higher amount of heavy metals such as cadmium,nickel,and lead into the environment.These metals are non-biodegradable and toxic,causing much effects on plants and by extension to animals and humans,which have become a major global concern.The inherent ability of plants to resist heavy metal toxicity seems to be the most sustainable and cost-effective strategy.Castor plant is widely studied due to its tolerance to the effects of heavy metal contaminated soils,owing to its large biomass content and high accumulating capacity.Castor plants to some extent can tolerate elevated levels of heavy metals through several developed mechanisms,such as activation of antioxidant enzymes,exclusion,accumulation of proline,compartmentalization,organic acid exudation,and phytochelatins.Molecular studies have identified some stress-responsive to aid the tolerance of heavy metals in castor.Stress caused by heavy metal toxicity affects seedling growth,biomass,photosynthetic pigments,protein level,and nutrient uptake of castor plant.The response of castor,however,to these stresses differs among cultivars,metal type and concentration,and time of metal applied.This review aims to summarize the physiological responses and various defense mechanisms of castor to tolerate and eradicate heavy metal toxicity and some stress-responsive genes identified at transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels that confer metal tolerance in this plant.

Brassinosteroids and Plant Responses to Heavy Metal Stress. An Overview

Soil contamination with heavy metals has become a world-wide problem, leading to the loss in agricultural productivity. Plants have a remarkable ability to take up and accumulate heavy metals from their external environment and it is well known that high levels of heavy metals affect different physiological and metabolic processes. Brassinosteroids are considered as the sixth class of plant hormones and they are essential for plant growth and development. These compounds are able of inducing abiotic stress tolerance in plants. In this paper, information about brassinosteroids and plant responses to heavy metal stress is reviewed.

Influence of heavy metal stress on morphology and physiology of Penicillium chrysogenum during bioleaching process

In order to improve the efficiency of bioleaching heavy metal from the contaminated soil using Penicillium chrysogenum(P.chrysogenum),experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of heavy metal stress on P.chrysogenum during bioleaching.The morphology and physiology of P.chrysogenum were observed.Assuming that the heavy metals are all leached out from the experiment soil,heavy metals are added into the agar medium by simulating the heavy metal content in the soil.It is concluded that the survivable heavy metal contaminated soil mass range for P.chrysogenum is 2.5-5.0 g.As for biomass determination,the contaminated soil is added into the liquid medium directly.The soil mass that P.chrysogenum can be survivable is in the range of 2.5-8.75 g.In this mass range,the biomass of P.chrysogenum is bigger than that of the control sample.10 g soil mass is the threshold of the growth of P.chrysogenum.102.2 mg/L gluconic acid,156.4 mg/L oxalic acid,191.6 mg/L pyruvic acid,0.02 mg/L citric acid,0.03 mg/L malic acid and 70.6 mg/L succinic acid are determined after 15 d bioleaching.The mycelium is broken into fragments,and heavy metals are adsorbed on the cell wall or transported into the cytoplasm during bioleaching.The GOD activity declines from 1.08 U/mL to 0.2 U/mL under 400 mg/L of multi-metal stress.The influence of Pb on GOD activity is bigger than that of Cr and Cd,and the GOD activity is not influenced apparently by Mn,Zn and Cu.

Effect of Heavy Metal Stress on Seed Germination of Albizia julibrissin

[Objectives]This study was conducted to investigate the effects of different heavy metal stresses on seed germination,in order to provide a theoretical basis for phytoremediation of soil heavy metal pollution.[Methods]With the seeds of A.julibrissin as an experimental material,the germination test of A.julibrissin seeds under different concentrations of Cu^(2+),Zn^(2+) and Pb^(2+) was carried out.The germination potential,germination rate,germination index,radicle length,embryo length and other indexes were measured.[Results]①Different heavy metals had different effects on the germination of A.julibrissin seeds.Low concentrations of Cu^(2+),Zn^(2+) and Pb^(2+) stresses had certain promotion effects on the germination of A.julibrissin seeds,but high concentrations of Cu^(2+),Zn^(2+),Pb^(2+) stresses had obvious inhibitory effects on the germination of A.julibrissin seeds.②There were obvious differences in the tolerance of A.julibrissin seeds to different metal ion stresses.According to the comparison of the average values of membership functions,the order of their tolerance to different heavy metal ions was:Zn^(2+)>Cu^(2+)>Pb^(2+).[Conclusions]In the case of light pollution,the germination of A.julibrissin seeds was not inhibited,and the use of this plant for the remediation of lightly contaminated soil with heavy metals can also be considered.

Role of mycorrhiza to reduce heavy metal stress

Plants have a system of antioxidant enzymes, which helps to alleviate the effects of various types of stresses. Heavy metals like Cadmium and lead are tolerable for plants to certain extent. The antioxidant enzymes do not function properly at higher concentrations of Cadmium, lead and some other heavy metals. The activities of antioxidant enzymes are reduced due to reactive oxygen species produced as a result of heavy metal stress. The catalase activity was directly inhibited by O2- (Kono and Fridovich, 1982). These ROS are O2-, H2O2, and -OH which can react with many other biomolecules. Several metallic ions are produced by radical displacement reactions. These metallic ions inhibit the activity of antioxidant enzymes. Hence, enzymic antioxidant defense system of plants is affected and adversely inhibits plant growth and productivity. Mycorrhizal fungi are important in phytostabilization of toxic heavy metals. Plants having mycorrhizal association accumulate metallic pollutants by storing these heavy metals in Vesicles as well as in fungal hyphae in their roots, hence these metallic pollutants are immobilized and do not inhibit the growth and uptake of phosphorus and some other micronutrients. Mycorrhizal fungi also release various organic acids which increase the solubilisation of insoluble phosphate compounds present in soil. The unavailable forms of phosphorus are converted into available forms as a result of organic acids produced by fungi. AM fungi release glomalins that are certain metal sorble glycoproteins which increase the immobilization of toxic metals. Another protein is metallothionine released by certain AM fungi, which also reduces the heavy metal toxicity in soil. Mycorrhizal fungi also induce resistance in plants against pathogens, drought and salinity stress. Investigation on heavy metal stress resistant genes in mycorrhizal plants can be very helpful for phytoremediation. This review focuses on the use of AM fungi for phytoremediation.

Effects of Heavy Metal Stress on the Protein Content of Microorganisms

[Objective] The aim was to study the effects of heavy metal stress on the protein content of microorganisms.[Method] By using traditional microbiological culture method,four typical microorganisms(including Escherichia coli,Bacillus subtilis,Saccharomyces cerevisiae Hansen and Streptomycetaceae) were cultured under the stress of heavy metal ions(like Hg2+,Cd2+,Cr6+ and Pb2+) with different concentrations,and the effects of heavy metal stress on the synthesis of protein in four typical microorganisms were discussed through measuring protein content.[Result] Heavy metals with low concentration were beneficial to the synthesis of protein in four typical microorganisms to a certain extent,but the synthesis of protein in four typical microorganisms was inhibited differently with the increase of heavy metal concentration.The tolerance of B.subtilis to four heavy metals was stronger compared with other three microorganisms,and the four heavy metals with concentration of 5-50 mg/L promoted the protein synthesis of B.subtilis.Cr6+ with low concentration promoted the protein synthesis of E.coli greatly;Pb2+ inhibited the protein synthesis of E.coli obviously,and promoted the protein synthesis of other three microorganisms under certain concentration;Cd2+ with low concentration was beneficial to the protein synthesis of four microorganisms.[Conclusion] The study could provide theoretical foundation for discussing the physiological response of microorganism to heavy metal stress.

Comparison of physiological responses to oxidative and heavy metal stress in seedlings of rice paddy, Oryza sativa L.

Physiological responses on the bases of activities of antioxidant enzymes: peroxidase, catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione reductase as well as estimation of total protein, lipid peroxidation and thiols in the form of protein, non\|protein, glutathione and phytochelatin measured in growing seedlings of paddy, Oryza sativa L., from day 2 to 8 were compared following treatment of seeds for 5h with oxidative agents, paraquat 5 × 10 -5 , 10 -4 , 10 -3 mol/L, H 2O 2 10 -3 , 5×10 -3 , 10 -2 mol/L, and CdCl 2 10 -5 , 10 -4 , 5×10 -3 mol/L. A significant induction of all antioxidant enzymes along with an increase in the levels of protein, lipid peroxidation and glutathione was noted in response to oxidative stress, CdCl 2 induced significant peroxidase and catalase activities but not superoxide dismutase. In a marked contrast from oxidative stress, CdCl 2 decreased glutathione reductase activity as well as glutathione levels but increased phytochelatin level. The different physiological responses thus underlined the crucial involvement of glutathione and phytochelatin in the oxidative and heavy metal\|linduced adaptive responses respectively.

Silicon and Nitric Oxide-Mediated Regulation of Growth Attributes, Metabolites and Antioxidant Defense System of Radish (Raphanus sativus L.) under Arsenic Stress

Arsenic(As)contaminated food chains have emerged as a serious public concern for humans and animals and are known to affect the cultivation of edible crops throughout the world.Therefore,the present study was designed to investigate the individual as well as the combined effects of exogenous silicon(Si)and sodium nitroprusside(SNP),a nitric oxide(NO)donor,on plant growth,metabolites,and antioxidant defense systems of radish(Raphanus sativus L.)plants under three different concentrations of As stress,i.e.,0.3,0.5,and 0.7 mM in a pot experiment.The results showed that As stress reduced the growth parameters of radish plants by increasing the level of oxidative stress markers,i.e.,malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide.However,foliar application of Si(2 mM)and pretreatment with SNP(100μM)alone as well as in combination with Si improved the plant growth parameters,i.e.,root length,fresh and dry weight of plants under As stress.Furthermore,As stress also reduced protein,and metabolites contents(flavonoids,phenolic and anthocyanin).Activities of antioxidative enzymes such as catalase(CAT),ascorbate peroxidase(APX),guaiacol peroxidase(POD),and polyphenol oxidase(PPO),as well as the content of non-enzymatic antioxidants(glutathione and ascorbic acid)decreased under As stress.In most of the parameters in radish,As III concentration showed maximum reduction,as compared to As I and II concentrations.However,the individual and combined application of Si and NO significantly alleviated the As-mediated oxidative stress in radish plants by increasing the protein,and metabolites content.Enhancement in the activities of CAT,APX,POD and PPO enzymes were recorded.Contents of glutathione and ascorbic acid were also enhanced in response to co-application of Si and NO under As stress.Results obtained were more pronounced when Si and NO were applied in combination under As stress,as compared to their individual application.In short,the current study highlights that Si and NO synergistically regulate plant growth through lowering the As-mediated oxidative stress by upregulating the metabolites content,activity of antioxidative enzymes and non-enzymatic antioxidants in radish plants.

Cd and Hg Mediated Oxidative Stress,Antioxidative Metabolism and Molecular Changes in Soybean(Glycine max L.)

Cadmium(Cd)and Mercury(Hg)is among the heavy metals most hazardous for plant and human health.Known to induce oxidative stress in plants and disbalance equilibrium in the antioxidant defence system,these metals alter plant growth and cause damage at the cellular and molecular levels.Soybean is an important oilseed crop that is raised in soils often contaminated by Cd and Hg.The comparative studies on the deleterious effect of Cd and Hg and the defence system of antioxidants were not studied earlier in soybean plant.In this study,soybean plants were exposed to Cd(100μM CdCl_(2))and Hg(100μM HgCl_(2))and studied for physiological,biochemical and molecular responses.Both Cd and Hg treatment increased the magnitude of oxidative stress.Activities of antioxidant enzymes were significantly upregulated in response to Cd and Hg stress.Quantitative and qualitative assessment of isolated RNA showed significant differences in RNA under stress.Integrity values of RNA confirmed alterations.Transcript level of the Actin gene,involved in the morphogenesis of plants and also used as referenced gene in expression studies was analyzed using qRT-PCR just to check its stability and response under heavy metal stress.Results showed significant upregulation of the gene in the presence of Cd.It can be concluded that both Cd and Hg caused oxidative damage to plants,and adversely affected the quality of RNA.However,soybean tried to limit the adverse impacts of Cd and Hg stress by elevating the antioxidant system and upregulating Actin gene.

Measurement of Residual Stress Field of Hardfacing Metal with RE Oxide and Its Numerical Simulation

The temperature and residual stress fields of a medium-high carbon steel, welded by a cracking resistance electrode with rare earth (RE) oxide, were measured by thermo-vision analyzer and X-ray stress analyzer respectively. Meanwhile, the martensitic transformation temperatures of matrix, hard-face welding (hardfacing) metal welded by conventional hardfacing electrode and that welded by cracking resistance electrode with RE oxide were determined. According to the experimental data and the thermo-physical, mechanical parameters of materials, finite element method (FEM) of temperature and stress fields was established. In this FEM, the effect of martensitic transformation on residual stress of hardfacing metal of medium-high carbon steel was taken into account. The results show that, by adding RE oxide in the coat of hardfacing electrode, the martensitic transformation temperature can be decreased, so that the residual tensile stress on the dangerous position can be decreased. Therefore, the cracking resistance of hardfacing metal can be improved.

Characterization of Stress Concentration by Tangential Component Hp(x) of Metal Magnetic Memory Signals

The correlation between the stress concentration and the spontaneous magnetic signals of metal magnetic memory(MMM) was investigated via tensile tests. Sheet specimens of the Q235 steel were machined into standard bars with rectangular holes to obtain various stress concentration factors. The tangential component Hp(x) of MMM signals and its related magnetic characteristic parameters throughout the loading process were presented and analyzed. It is found that the tangential component Hp(x) is sensitive to the abnormal magnetic changes caused by the local stress concentration in the defect area. The minimum magnetic field is positively correlated to the magnitude of the load and the distance from the notch. The tangential magnetic stress concentration factor presents good numerical stability during the entire loading process, and can be used to evaluate the stress concentration factor. The results obtained will be a complement to the MMM technique.

Stress Field of Non-equilibrium Grain Boundaries in Nano-crystalline Metals

Introducing the stress distribution near grain boundaries to improve the dislocation pileup model for the Halt-Petch (H-P) relation, the continuous distribution of dislocations in the pileup could be solved by means of Tschebysheff polynomials for the Hilbert transformation. An analytical formula of the stress intensity factor for the dislocation pileup is obtained. The reverse H-P relation may be explained by the modified dislocation-pileup-model.

Effect of thermal residual stresses on yielding behavior under tensile or compressive loading of short fiber reinforced metal matrix composite

Using large strain two dimension axisymmetric elasto plastic finite element method and the modified law of mixture, the effects of thermal residual stresses on the yielding behavior of short fiber reinforced metal matrix composite and their dependencies on the material structure parameters (fiber volume fraction, fiber aspect ratio and fiber end distance) were studied. It is demonstrated that the stress strain partition parameter can be used to describe the stress transfer from the matrix to the fiber. The variation of the second derivation of the stress strain partition parameter can be used to determine the elastic modulus, the proportion limit, the initial and final yield strengths. In the presence of thermal residual stress, these yielding properties are asymmetric and are influenced differently by the material structure parameters under tensile and compressive loadings.

Mechanism Analysis on Stress Accumulation in Cylindrical Vertical-Placed Metal Hydride Reactor

It’s known that the pulverization-densification mechanism of metal hydride may cause the stress accumulation in metal hydrides reactors. In this paper, this idea is proved based on granulometry and a new idea of cycling compression effect is presented, which is caused by the friction between wall and metal hydrides. Through theoretical analysis, the cycling compression effects is shown to increase the localized packing rate from top to down in vertical-placed reactors and thus lead to the maximum deformation in the bottom of reactors, proving that it is the interaction of pulverization-densification effect and cycling compression effect resulting in the stress problems of vertical-placed reactors. Further study points that the effective methods relieving the cycling compress effect are to decrease hydrogen absorption/desorption cycle number, slenderness ratio of reactor, wall friction factor and initial packing rate, or to lower the thermal conductivity and the volume expansion coefficient of metal hydrides.

Accumulation behavior of heavy metals by Bidens pilosa L.from metallurgical slag:effects on plant physiology and absorption characteristics

Many of the abandoned mining and industrial land in villages and towns are seriously polluted by heavy metals in China,it is necessary for sustainable development to adopt efficient and economical ways to restore the ecology of abandoned mining and industrial land.Pollution level of topsoil contaminated with metallurgical slag from nonferrous metal smelting waste site in Baoding,North China and the heavy metals(HMs)accumulation behavior of Bidens pilosa L.(B.pilosa,native pioneer plant)were studied.Two selected study sites were mainly contaminated by As(270~434 mg/kg),Cd(63~95 mg/kg),Pb(5496~24504 mg/kg)and Zn(4500~21300 mg/kg),which exceed the national standard severely.Investigation of multi-metal accumulation in different parts of B.pilosa indicated that the absorption of toxic metals varied by types,concentration and species of HMs under stress conditions,soil property and plant tissues.The results showed that B.pilosa had excellent ability to accumulate HMs under different HMs stress condition,with the highest accumulation concentration of 85 mg/kg for As,380 mg/kg for Cd,4000 mg/kg for Pb,and 7500 mg/kg for Zn in roots under experimental conditions,respectively.The growth trend of B.pilosa declined with the increase of HMs stress concentration in tested soils.HMs stress led to different degrees of plant toxicity and obstruction of physiological metabolism.Among the plant physiological index,Chla and ChlT decreased 28.0%and 28.1%,37.3%and 35.5%under different stress treatments,respectively.Indicators related to physiological metabolic strength and stress resistance of plant,such as MDA(Malondiadehyde),CAT(catalase),SOD(superoxide dismutase)and SP(soluble protein),all increased with the increase of HMs stress concentration.

Pollutants, Snails, Oxidative-Stress, Organophosphates, Metals

Aquatic reservoirs remain the ultimate sink of chemical pollutants emanating from anthropogenic activities such as agriculture, mining and industry. Freshwater biota undoubtedly is at risk from the adverse effects of these water pollutants and there is therefore, a need to monitor effects of these chemical pollutants in order to safeguard the health of aquatic biota. We investigated the oxidative stress effects of chlorpyrifos and lead on the freshwater snail Helisoma duryi to assess the potential of using this enzyme system as a biondicator of exposure to environmental pollutants. Groups of snails were exposed to 5 ppb lead acetate and 25 ppb chlorpyrifos for 7 days after which half of the snails were sacrificed and the other half were allowed to recover in clean water and sacrificed after another 7 days. Post mitochondrial fractions were used to measure the activities of the following antioxidant enzymes: superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione S-transferase and diphosphotriphosphodiaphorase. Both pollutants enhanced the activities of all the antioxidant enzymes suggesting a defensive mechanism by the snail to combat the oxidative stress due to the organophosphate chlopryrifos and metal pollutant lead. There was a significant recovery of the antioxidant defense system of the snails allowed to recover in clean water shown by the reduced alteration of the antioxidant enzyme activities of the snails allowed to recover for 7 days. This suggests the need to minimize exposure of aquatic biota to chemical pollutants and remediate the polluted water reservoirs in order to safeguard the health of aquatic life.

Comprehensive Analysis of Stress-Strain in Typical Metal Forming Processes

The corresponding positions of different metal plastic working processes in the plane stress state on a Mises yield ellipse are described.The paper points out that the forming of a workpiece inside its die is corresponding to a mass point moving along the ellipse and that its dimensional variation tendency in all directions can be judged according to a correspondence rule of the stress-strain order offered by the author.In addition,the paper also presents the corresponding three-dimensional positions of different metal plastic working processes on the Mises cylinder,from which the deformation force and technological plasticity required in different processes can be compared,and the dimensional variation tendency can be predicted.The analysis method used in this paper is not to calculate the variation of each stress component(σx,σy,σz) by convention,but to emphasize the variation of the stress state in the typical position,which is expressed correspondingly as the varying locus of points in principal stress space,and then based on the analysis the strain result is judged.

Thermal residual stresses and stress distributions under tensile and compressive loadings of short fiber reinforced metal matrix composites

The thermal residual stresses and the stress distributions of short fiber reinforced metal matrix composite under tensile and compressive loadings were studied using large strain axisymmetric elasto plastic finite element method. It is demonstrated that the thermal residual stresses can result in asymmetrical stress distributions and matrix plasticity. The thermal residual stresses decrease the stress transfer in tension and enhance the stress transfer in compression. The fiber volume fraction has more important effects on the thermal residual stresses and the stress distributions under tensile and compressive loadings than the fiber aspect ratio and the fiber end distance. [