Conocarpus lancifolius Engl. (Combretaceae) photosynthetic apparatus suffers damage in heavy metal contaminated soil

Conocarpus lancifolius Engl. (Combretaceae), a heat tolerant plant, could be used for phytoremediation of polluted soil. We aimed to analyze the physiological changes in C. lancifolius exposed to single and mixed heavy metals (HMs), cadmium (Cd2+), nickel (Ni2+), and lead (Pb2+). Under controlled growth conditions, some groups of plants were exposed to a single HM at concentrations of 25 or 50 µM and other groups were exposed to 25 µM HM mixtures, for 30 days. Photosynthetic parameters such as electron transport rate, photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll fluorescence, chlorophyll content index, and photosynthetic pigments were measured. The chloroplast morphology was studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In plants exposed to HM 25 µM, the photosynthetic parameters were unaffected, whereas at HM 50 µM, all parameters significantly decreased until 20 days of exposure followed by an increase until 30 days, indicating a slow adaptability of plants under HM stress. Compared to single HMs, mixed HMs were more toxic at the same concentration. All parameters indicated damage to the photosynthetic apparatus due to stress from mixed HMs at 25 µM and single HMs at 50 µM. TEM analyses showed a dispersion of grana in the chloroplast of the affected C. lancifolius plants.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Abstracts of 1st International Conference on Computational & Applied Physics

This book contains the abstracts of the papers presented at the International Conference on Computational & Applied Physics (ICCAP’2021) Organized by the Surfaces, Interfaces and Thin Films Laboratory (LASICOM), Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University Saad Dahleb Blida 1, Algeria, held on 26–28 September 2021. The Conference had a variety of Plenary Lectures, Oral sessions, and E-Poster Presentations. Conference Title: 1st International Conference on Computational & Applied PhysicsConference Acronym: ICCAP’2021Conference Date: 26–28 September 2021Conference Location: Online (Virtual Conference)Conference Organizer: Surfaces, Interfaces, and Thin Films Laboratory (LASICOM), Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University Saad Dahleb Blida 1, Algeria