Revitalizing cadmium-stressed sunflower: co-composted biochar improves growth, antioxidant responses, and soil remediation efficiency

作者：Muhammad Rauf, Muhammad Naveed, Muhammad Munir, Abdul Ghafoor, Muhammad Naeem Sattar, Hassan Ali-Dinar, Hisham A. Mohamed, Muhammad Asaad Bashir, Muhammad Asif, Adnan Mustafa · 发表于：BMC Plant Biology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1186/s12870-025-06906-y · 被引用次数：6 · 研究领域：Heavy metals in environment、Plant responses to elevated CO2、Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance

Abstract Background Heavy metals especially cadmium (Cd), has become a matter of concern for environmentalists due to extensive industrialization and poor management of industrial waste. As a toxic pollutant, Cd has ability to deteriorate soil quality and hence disturbs the plant growth and yield. Co-composted biochar (COMBI) has been reported as an excellent organic amendment for improving soil quality, crop productivity and amelioration of heavy metals polluted soil. Therefore, an experiment was performed to assess the potential of co-composted biochar to enhance sunflower growth under Cd stressed soil. Different concentrations 0, 30 and 60 mg kg -1 Cd and normal, modified and co-composted biochar at the rate of 1% (w/w) were applied to soil. Results The application of normal and modified biochar considerably improved the sunflower growth, yield, physiology and biochemistry and decreased the Cd uptake in plant tissues. Among applied amendments, co-composted biochar showed better results, by increasing the crop agronomic parameters ranging from 115 to 132%, as compared to control treatment under Cd stress. The chlorophyll content, water use efficiency (WUE), photosynthetic rate (A), transpiration rate (E), stomatal conductance (gs), sub-stomatal conductance (Ci), relative water content (RWC), and electrolyte leakage (EL) were improved by 122, 117, 126, 133, 128, 131, 123, and 121%, respectively, when co-composted biochar was used compared to the control. Moreover, stress rel...