Joint toxicity of methamidophos and cadmium acting on Abelmoschus manihot

Article type: Research Article

Authors: WANG, Xiao-fei^; | ZHOU, Qi-xing^;

Affiliations: Key Laboratory of Terrestrial Ecological Process, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China | Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China

Note: [] Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: Joint toxicity of methamidophos and cadmium (Cd) on the ornamental Abelmoschus manihot was firstly examined and compared with single-factor effects of the two pollutants using ecotoxicological indexes including the inhibitory rate of seed germination, root elongation and inhibitory concentration 50% (IC_{50}). The results indicated that methamidophos and Cd had unobvious (p > 0.05) effects on seed germination of the ornamental. There were significant (p < 0.05) inhibitory effects of Cd on root elongation of the tested plant. When the concentration of added Cd was low (< 20 mg/L), significant antagonistic effects on root elongation were observed. And synergic effects were observed when Cd was added in high dose (> 20 mg/L). However, the analysis of joint effects indicated that there were antagonistic effects between Cd and methamidophos under all the treatments. At the high concentration of Cd, joint toxicity of methamidophos and Cd was more dependent on concentration of Cd.

Keywords: joint toxicity, cadmium, methamidophos, ornamental

Journal: Journal of Environmental Sciences, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 379-383, 2005