Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi alleviate the heavy metal toxicity on sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) plants cultivated on a heavily contaminated field soil at a WEEE-recycling site.

An 8-week pot experiment was conducted to investigate the growth and responses of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) to arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal inoculations on a heavily heavy metal (HM)-contaminated (H) soil and a lightly HM-enriched (L) soil, both of which were collected from a waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)-recycling site. Compared with the L soil, the H soil induced significantly larger (P<0.05) concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb, Cr, Zn and Ni in sunflower (except for root Cr and shoot Ni), which impaired the thylakoid lamellar folds in leaves. The biomasses and P concentrations of shoots and roots, as well as the total P acquisitions per pot were all significantly decreased (P<0.05). Both Funneliformis mosseae (Fm) and F. caledonium (Fc) inoculation significantly increased (P<0.05) root mycorrhizal colonization. For the L soil, AM fungal inoculations had no significant effects on the soil-plant system, except for a decrease of soil pH and increases of soil available P and DTPA-extractable Zn concentrations with the Fm-inoculated treatment. For the H soil, however, AM fungal inoculations significantly increased (P<0.05) the biomasses and P concentrations of shoots and roots, as well as the total P acquisitions per pot, and significantly reduced (P<0.05) the concentrations of HMs in shoots (except for Cu and Pb with Fm- and Fc- inoculated treatments, respectively) and alleviated the toxicity symptoms of HMs in thylakoid structure of leaves. AM fungal inoculations in the H soil also significantly increased (P<0.05) the shoot uptake of HMs (except for Cr), and tended to decrease the total concentrations of HMs in soils. This suggests the potential application of AM fungi for both reducing HM stress and promoting phytoextraction of HM-contaminated soils caused by WEEE recycling.