comparative assessment of the toxic effects of copper and ...

Fig. 3 Effects of chemical treatments (0-0.05 mg ml -1 ) on fresh yield of seedlings of S. oleracea L. Bars are mean ±SE of five replicates. Bars of respective treatment followed by different letters are significantly different from eachother at p≤0.05 (Duncan’s multiple range test).The results of two-way ANOVA test clearly showed that chemicals, treatments and chemicals ×treatments have significant effects on all the tested parameters of plant growth (Table 1). However,interaction of variables and chemicals did not show significant effects on shoot and root elongation. Thisstudy also suggests that the sources of variables and their interaction may affect the growth anddevelopment of seedlings of spinach plants. This study concludes that presence of CPM and Cu in soilmay influence the seed germination, PSG, SGR and growth of seedlings of a crop. The study furtherreveals that CPM has more toxic effects on seeds of S. oleracea L. as compared to Cu, and toxic effect orsoil pollutants on food crops needs to be studied further.Table 1: Results of two-way ANOVA test F-values (significance levels) for the tested parameters of S. oleraceaL. seeds.ParametersSources of VariationChemicals (C) Treatments (T) C × TPSG 46.10 (***) 96.70 (***) 6.12 (**)SGR 13.98 (**) 29.75 (***) 1.24 (ns)Root elongation 0.13 (ns) 43.60 (***) 7.31(**)Shoot elongation 4.47 (*) 17.68 (***) 1.05 (ns)Total yield 158.16 (***) 105.23 (***) 3.54 (*)Levels of significance; ***P