Abstract
Anthropogenic factors such as climate change, harsh agricultural
practices, and mining have contributed to increases in soil salinization
and heavy metal contamination. Highly saline environments drastically
lower yield for crop species and elevated levels of toxic metals like
cadmium are carcinogenic in the environment. Some plants that have
evolved in high-salinity habitats or in soils with heavy metals could be
used to remediate contaminated soils. Halophytes are plants with various
adaptations that allow them to survive and reproduce in saline
conditions. General mechanisms for salt tolerance/uptake in halophytes
are hypothesized to help deal with other stresses like heavy metals.
Plants with these traits could be utilized to extract salt and heavy
metals from affected soils in a process called phytoremediation. We plan
to develop Sea Rocket (Cakile maritima) in the Mustard family as a model
system to understand mechanisms of salt (NaCl) and cadmium uptake and
tolerance, as it has been shown to accumulate both. As part of this
study, we will hydroponically grow C. maritima in different stress
treatments using salt and cadmium. As the plants uptake the pollutants,
the conductivity of the solution will change. We will develop an
automated pipeline to track these changes in real-time using
conductivity sensors. In addition, we will sample root and leaf tissues
at various time points to measure salt and cadmium uptake using ICP-OES
elemental analysis. This data will provide insights into salt and
cadmium uptake/tolerance and paves a path toward efficient and viable
solutions improving phytoremediation approaches.