Zinc and cadmium accumulation among and within populations of the pseudometalophytic species Arrhenatherum elatius: Implications for phytoextraction

The purpose of this study was to investigate, under standard conditions, the bioaccumulation of zinc and cadmium in Arrhenatherum elatius, a perennial grass with a high biomass production. Nine populations of three different origins were tested: three metallicolous populations (mpop); three non-metallicolous populations (nmpop) and three populations developing on soils moderately metal polluted (medpop). We have found that bioaccumulation differs among these populations, with nmpop accumulating significantly more zinc (p < 0.0001) and cadmium (p < 0.0001) than mpop. Indeed, we have observed a concentration of 325 mg kg− 1 of zinc and 52 mg kg− 1 of cadmium in A. elatius shoots from mpop, whereas in nmpop, the concentration reached on average 524 mg kg− 1 zinc and 83 mg kg− 1 cadmium. In the same way, medpop accumulated as much zinc but more cadmium than nmpop. Moreover, the standard deviation of medpop was larger than the one for mpop and nmpop. Indeed, some A. elatius samples from medpop presented a high metal content whereas, others presented low concentrations in their shoots (ranging from 60 to 210 mg kg− 1 cadmium). Hence, these medpop exhibited a large variability among and within populations in accumulating zinc and cadmium in their shoots. Based on these results, the possibility of selecting A. elatius plants with the best accumulating capacity from medpop was proposed. We concluded that if the accumulation capacity is genetically controlled in A. elatius, this species fulfils this necessary condition for efficiently increasing species bioaccumulation by crossbreeding A. elatius plants with the higher accumulation capacity.