Abstract

OLIVARES, Yenny; GAETE, Hernán  and  NEAMAN, Alexander. Assessment of the fitotoxicity and genotoxicity of agricultural soils from zones with copper mining activities of the Aconcagua river basing (central Chile). Rev. Int. Contam. Ambient [online]. 2015, vol.31, n.3, pp.237-243. ISSN 0188-4999.

The agricultural soils of the Aconcagua river basin in zones near to mining centers are characterized by having high copper concentrations. This is a risk for terrestrial organisms like plants. The studies of toxicity in plants on these kind of soils are few. We still do not know if these soils can provoke genotoxicity in plants. According to this, the aim of this investigation was to evaluate the genotoxicity and phytotoxicity of agricultural soils near to mining centers in the Aconcagua river basin (central Chile). In order to do this, Vicia faba seeds were exposed to extracts of contaminated soils by 144 h. At the end of the experiments, the germination percentage, root growth, micro-nuclei frequency and mitotic index of the seeds were determinated. The soils with the higher concentrations of total copper were 2 and 3, with 7658 y 789 mg/kg respectively. Significant inhibition in the germination porcentage in the soil 3 was observed. The higher percentage of inhibition in the mitotic index was in soils 2 and 4. A significative relationship between this parameter and the soluble copper concentration in soils was observed (R² = 0.67, p < 0.05). Soils 2 and 3, which have high copper concentrations,, are genotoxic and they would be a risk to plants growing in these kind of soils.

Keywords : genotoxicity; micronuclei; mitotic index; Vicia faba.