REGULAR ARTICLE Phytoextraction of heavy metals by two Salicaceae clones in symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi during the second year of a field trial Laurence Bissonnette & Marc St-Arnaud & Michel Labrecque Received: 28 August 2009 / Accepted: 22 December 2009 / Published online: 16 January 2010 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract We evaluated the potential of Salix viminalis (5027) and Populus × generosa for the phytoextraction of heavy metals (HM) inoculated or not with an arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus Glomus intra- radices during a second year of growth in a random- ized complete block field trial on a slightly contaminated site. Both plant clones produced high aboveground biomass yields, however P .× generosa produced significantly more biomass than S. viminalis. The two plant clones accumulated high concentrations of Cd and Zn in their shoots, while Cu and Pb were stored in their roots. In general, S. viminalis accumu- lated higher concentrations of HM. The inoculation of G. intraradices in the previous year did not influence plant clones’ biomass yields during the second growing season. However, Cu and Cd translocation to shoots was limited, and Cu was preferentially concentrated in roots of inoculated plants, compared to non-inoculated plants, which were also colonized by native AM fungi taxa. Efficiency of S. viminalis and P .× generosa for Cd and Zn rehabilitation in slightly contaminated soil has been demonstrated, but mycorrhizal inoculation did not significantly increase HM extraction. Keywords Heavy metal . Phytoextraction . Salix viminalis . Hybrid poplar . Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Abbreviations AM arbuscular mycorrhizal ANOVA analysis of variance BCF biological concentration factor CEC cation exchange capacity HM heavy metal Introduction Phytoextraction refers to the transfer of inorganic contaminants, mainly heavy metals (HM), from soil to harvestable aboveground plant tissues. This “in situ”, environmentally-friendly technique for the clean up of contaminated sites is both low cost and low maintenance. Continuous vegetation cover results in soil stabilization and reduced risk of contaminant erosion, dispersion or leaching (Hammer et al. 2003). Additionally, it is one of the few soil decontamination techniques that preserves soil structure and microbial community (Pulford and Watson 2003). Hyperaccumulator plants are capable of accumu- lating HM in concentrations over 100 times higher than other plant species (Salt et al. 1998), however their phytoextraction efficiency is generally limited by their slow growth, low biomass yields and shallow Plant Soil (2010) 332:55–67 DOI 10.1007/s11104-009-0273-x Responsible Editor: Juan Barcelo. L. Bissonnette : M. St-Arnaud : M. Labrecque (*) Institut de Recherche en Biologie Végétale, Université de Montréal and Jardin Botanique de Montréal, 4101 Sherbrooke Street East, Montreal, QC H1X 2B2, Canada e-mail: mlabrecque@jbmontreal.net