The effect of selenium on physiological and biochemical characteristics of Lemna minor

摘要

Selenium is an element which can be toxic at certain concentrations. Selenium in wastewaters can contaminate surface water and groundwater, accumulate in certain aquatic plants and can lead to poisoning of aquatic and terrestrial organisms. We tried to establish which concentrations of selenite are beneficial for growth of common duckweed and how different selenite concentrations affect selected physiological and biochemical characteristics of common duckweed. We monitored respiratory potential, photochemical efficiency of photosystem II and the content of photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a and b) and carotenoids in plants treated with different concentrations of selenite. The results showed that the addition of selenite 0.5 mg/L had no effect on the selected physiological and biochemical characteristics of the studied plant. However, the addition of 1 mg/L had a positive effect on the growth of common duckweed. Our results showed that higher concentrations of selenite had negative effect on the studied plant.