Agriculture & Food, Volume 9, 2021

Abstract: The heavy metal contaminated soils is one of the most important problems in the field of rural development. Heavy metals can easily enter in the food chain. The transportation of heavy metals from soils to the upper part of the plants and then through the food to humans and animals can have negative effects in many living organisms. Durum wheat is one of the cereals which is cultivated in large areas all over the world. The aims of this work were (1) to study the accumulation of five heavy metals (Cu, Cr, Zn, Ni, Pb) in plants of durum wheat, (2) to reduce the availability of the pollutants to durum wheat plants by using three different mixture of manure and attapulgite (1:3, 1:1, 3:1) at three different levels (0%, 3% and 4% mix of manure - attapulgite / Kg soil) and (3) to evaluate the positive effectiveness of the different treatments. A pot greenhouse experiment was conducted in the University of Thessaly in Volos (Greece). For the pot experiment a heavy metal contaminated soil from an area that is near in the large motorways in Larissa region was collected. The agricultural soil and plant samples were analyzed for their “pseudo-total’’ heavy metals content by using the atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Furthermore, the Transfer Coefficient (Tc) was measured. According the results, the addition of mixture of manure and attapulgite reduces the uptake of metal pollutants in the soil. Furthermore, the results have shown that each treatment had a different effect on the reduction of heavy metals in the soil and in the transportation of heavy metals from the soil to upper part of the durum wheat plants.