Response of Wheat Cultivars to Arsenic Contamination in Polluted Soils of West Bengal, India

Arsenic, the toxic metalloid, widely available in the natural ecosystem, poses serious problem through contaminated groundwater and drinking water. The emerging areas of arsenic hazards in agricultural systems through use of contaminated irrigation water and entry of toxin in crops has been largely overlooked. Arsenic accumulation by plants and its translocation to edible parts were observed to vary within crops and also across the cultivars. Wheat is an alternative choice of summer rice, due to low water requirement. With this background, the current experiment was conducted with four popular wheat cultivars to study the arsenic accumulation and varietal tolerance under different soils and groundwater. The arsenic content was determined by using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). Result revealed that, wheat cultivars differed in their grain arsenic concentration (0.23-1.22 mg kg(-1)), which differed across the sites and year of experiment. The arsenic translocation in wheat grains usually least, and accumulation by different tissues followed the order root > stem > leaf > grain across the cultivars. The cultivar UP-262 was found to accumulate least arsenic in grains and cultivar Kalyansona the highest under same growing condition, due to phyto-extraction or phyto-morphological potential of the varieties.