Nutrient and Heavy Metal Concentration and Distribution in Corn, Sunflower, and Turnip Cultivated in a Soil under Wastewater Irrigation

To study the potential uptake and accumulation of some essential elements and cadmium, a field experiment was conducted using three plants (sunflower, turnip, and forage corn in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications in a soil classified as Typic Haplogypsids under wastewater irrigation. The experiment site was selected in the farmfields located in Varamin region in southern Tehran, Iran (2005). The results showed that maximum concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc, copper, and cadmium in sunflower were 6.05% , 1.27%, 97.27, 22.84 and 0.54 mgkg-1 respectively. The highest accumulation of nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc, and copper occurred in grain and cadmium in sunflower leaves. The maximum concentration of potassium and nitrate occurred in turnip leaves, while the maximum concentrations of iron and manganese were recorded in the root and leaves of forage corn, res pectively