Endophytic inoculation coupled with soil amendment and foliar inhibitor ensure phytoremediation and argo-production in cadmium contaminated soil under oilseed rape-rice rotation system.

Phytoremediation coupled with agro-production is a sustainable strategy for remediation of toxic metal contaminated farmlands without interrupting crop production. In this study, high accumulating oilseed rape was rotated with low accumulating rice to evaluate the effects of crop rotation on growth performance and uptake of cadmium (Cd) in plants. In this system, oilseed rape was inoculated with plant growth promoting endophyte (PGPE) consortium, and rice was applied with soil composite amendment and foliar inhibitor. The results showed, compared with rice monoculture, crop rotation coupled with superposition measure has potential to enhance yield, biomass and nutritional quality of both crops, as well as to increase Cd uptake in non-edible tissues of oilseed rape and to reduce Cd concentration in individual parts of rice, thus accelerating phytoextraction and ensuring food safety. These comprehensive management practices removed 7.03 and 7.91% total Cd from two experiment fields, respectively, in three years phytoremediation. These results demonstrated a feasible technical mode for phytoremediation coupled with argo-production in slightly Cd contaminated field, and also provided useful information for further investigation of interaction mechanisms between the rotated crops and biofortification measures.