Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is considered as the most cultivated and consumed leafy vegetable all over the world. In Erbil Governorate, most farmers used sewage water to irrigate lettuce, which caused health risks especially heavy metal pollutants including cadmium. This research was applied as a factorial experiment to investigate the effects of foliar spraying of salicylic acid (SA) (0,0.5,1, 1.5 or 2mM) followed by spraying cadmium chloride (Cd) (0, 1, 2, or 4mM) on the growth, and some physiological and biochemical characteristics of this plant. Results show that most vegetative growth characteristics responded inversely to increasing SA concentrations, whereas the response of root performance improved with using SA application. A low concentration of Cd (1mM) improved root and shoot performance, whereas increasing the concentration to 4 mM decreased these characteristics significantly compared to no Cd added plants, except for the percent of shoot dry matter. Most of photosynthetic pigments decreased significantly by foliar spraying with SA and Cd. Applications of SA increased catalase enzyme activity significantly compared to no SA treated plants. Cadmium foliar application increased peroxidase enzyme activity, ascorbic acid, proline, and percent of total carbohydrate content and decreased catalase enzyme activity and the percent of infection with watery soft rot significantly compared to no Cd treated plants. It is concluded that lettuce tolerance to cadmium stress was increased by pretreatment foliar application of SA.

In this study, the activity concentration of artificial and natural radionuclides such as ¹³⁷Cs, ⁴⁰K, ²²⁶Ra, and ²³²Th was measured in the soil under the roots; leaves; and fruits of six different fruit trees namely mulberry, fig, apricot, olive, black and white grapes in Koya district, Erbil province, Iraq. For this purpose, a high-resolution gamma spectroscopy consisting of a high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector was used. In addition, the associated radiological risks from soil and fruits were assessed by calculating several radiological indices such as radium equivalent (Raeq.s), absorbed dose (Ds), indoor (AEDEs _indoor ) and outdoor annual effective doses (AEDEs _outdoor ), internal and external hazard indices, gamma index and the excess lifetime cancer risk (ELRCs). The results show that consuming these fruits is radiologically safe because they can cause an annual effective dose of about 61.72 μSv y⁻¹ and excess lifetime cancer risk of 0.06 × 10⁻³ Sv y⁻¹. On the other hand, transfer factors of radionuclides from soil to leaves; and from soil to fruits were studied. The transfer factor analysis revealed that among the studied fruits and radionuclides, apricot and mulberry exhibited the highest transfer factors for ⁴⁰K, with values of 1.85 and 1.87, respectively.

Recent studies show that Nanotechnology can be effectively used to enhance the characteristics of many types of trees including forest trees. Dalbergia Sissoo Roxb., which belongs to the Fabaceae family, is a forest tree that grows in dry land and water conservation areas. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of nano silver (NS) at (0, 30, 60 and 90 mg/L) and gibberellic acid (GA3) at (0, 50, 100 and 200 mg/L) concentrations on seed performance and subsequent growth of Dalbergia sissoo Roxb. The results reveal the enhancement of germination rate and velocity by using GA3 at 100 and 200 mg/L. NS90 treatment increased each of shoot and root fresh and dry weight, leaf area and plant height whereas GA50 treatment increased number of branches per plant and primary root length. Non-significant differences between treatments on Peroxidase enzyme activity and chlorophyll a content was observed whereas NS30 had the highest chlorophyll b and lowest total carotenoids. Shoot and root contents of some essential and non-essential elements differed between treatments. In roots, N90 treatment increased each of Cu and Mn elements, but it decreased Cl content. Although GA100 treatment increased Cl content, it decreased Mn. The paper concludes that the applications of nano-silver and GA3 on Dalbergia sissoo Roxb. have significant effects on its growth and physiological parameters.

This study investigates the effects of soil contamination by nickel and lead on some enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants in addition to the nitrate reductase (NR) enzyme activity for Gleditsia triacanthos, Leucaena leucocephala, and Robinia pseudoacacia plant species. The results of this study show a significant increase in peroxidase enzyme activity and a significant decrease in catalase enzyme activity, proline, total carotenoids, and total carbohydrate content of leaves of the three species with increasing the concentration of Ni and Pb except for the total carbohydrate, which increased only for L. leucocephala species. Each NR enzyme activity and ascorbic acid content are increased significantly with increasing the concentration of Ni and Pb for G. triacanthos, L. leucocephala, and on the contrary, they decreased significantly for R. pseudoacacia species. From the result, we can conclude a general increase or decrease in leaves content of some antioxidants content for all the species, whereas there is some peculiarity according to the plant species regarding other contents, which in turn reflects different mechanisms of these species to tolerant heavy metal stress

Paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa) is considered as one of the world's fastest-growing species of trees and most widely used for commercial. This research was done as a factorial experiment in Koya city, Erbil, Iraq during 2021-2022 to study the effects of magnetic water (MW) at (0, 500,1000, 1500 and 2000) gauss and cadmium chloride (Cd) at (0, 3.33, 6.66 and 10 mg Kg-1soil) on some growth, physiological and biochemical properties of this plant. Results demonstrate that MW had non-significant differ regarding the survived and the velocity of cutting outgrowth compare to using tap water, whereas Cd application increased the velocity of cutting outgrowth. At least one of MW powers increased significantly each of plant leaf-area, stem diameter, shoot and root fresh weight and dry matter content, as well as all Cd concentrations increased the plants leaves number, leaf-area, stem diameter. Cd had more effects on roots than plant shoots, where it has non-significant effects on shoot high or dry matter, whereas it increased each of shoot and root fresh weight significantly compared to the control treatment. Low power MW (500 and 1000) gauss performed better than high powers (1500 and 2000) gauss in increasing the content of photosynthesis pigments. Utilizing magnetic water greatly enhanced total carotenoids and chlorophyll a, b, regardless to device power. Chlorophyll (a and b) were both significantly reduced by high Cd concentrations; however it was significantly increased at low concentrations as compared to other treatments. High power MW decreased significantly peroxidase enzyme activity and proline content whereas it decreased the percent of total carbohydrate compared to other treatments. Cd application decreased each of peroxidase enzyme activity, percent of total carbohydrate content, increased ascorbic acid and proline significantly in comparing to the control.

Nanosilver (NS) and indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) can improve cutting performance and subsequent growth. This study was performed in Taqtaq city in a randomized complete block design to study the effects of NS (30, 60, and 90 mg/L) and IBA (50, 100, and 200 mg/L) in addition to distilled water as a control on growth and some characteristics of hardwood cutting of Dalbergia sissoo Roxb. Application of IBA enhanced significantly buds sprouting, where the cutting treated with 50 mg/L IBA sprouted after 35.53 days. IBA at 200 mg/L increased plant leaf area significantly to 204.11 dm2 in comparison to the control cuttings (122.00 dm2). Furthermore, IBA at 50 and 200 mg/L increased the number of leaves to 194.66 and 193.00 leaves/plant, compared to control cuttings (158 leaves/plant). The lowest peroxidase activity (902.00 and 903.30 absorbing units/ g fresh leaves) was observed in the cuttings soaked in 30 and 60 mg/L NS, respectively. Both NS and IBA had a significant effect on macro and microelements in the shoot except Mg and Fe. The shoot content of elements was different in response to NS and IBA applications, whereas the high level of IBA decreased significantly K content (25.80 %) it increased significantly the shoot content of Zn (0.22%). However the lowest concentration of NS (30 mg/L) decreased significantly the Cu content (0.02 %) and increased significantly the shoot content of Mn (0.58%). Root response to NS and IBA also was different, where 90 mg/L NS increased significantly each of K (26.40%) and Zn content (0.68 %), whereas it decreased significantly the root content of Fe (8.78%). The enhancement effects of IBA were more than that of NS on most studied characteristics.