Vegetation analysis
3.2.1. Plant growth
Xenobiotics might alter growth and/or metabolism in plants and
these effects will also affect the phytoremediation process. The results
of length and biomass in roots and aerial tissues of tomato,
sunflower, soybean and alfalfa plants grown in non-spiked and
spiked soils are showninTable 3.Alength reduction in root and aerial
tissues was observed in sunflower plants from polluted soils at 15
days of growth. On the contrary, soybean plants exhibited an aerial
length increase for thesame time period.Otherwise, at 60 days, a root
and aerial length reduction was observed in sunflower-, soybeanand
alfalfa-exposed plants. The results showed a biomass reduction
in all exposed plants at both stages of growth (15 and 60 days), except
in alfalfa roots after 15 days. An interesting resultwas that the length
of the tomato plants was not affected by endosulfan, whereas
endosulfan was associated with a reduction in the biomass at both
stages of growth. On the contrary, aerial tissues of alfalfa plants
presented an inverse relationship between length and biomass
indicating that the growth in length is at the expense of biomass.
Several authors reported that pesticide presence affects different
plant processes that ultimately influence plant growth. Endosulfan
affects cell division in root meristems of Biden laevis hydroponically
grown at concentrations of 0.01e5 ml g1 (Perez et al., 2008).
Chouychai (2012) also showed that the endosulfan and lindane
occurrence in soils decreased seedling growth in Brassica chinensis.