科研之友
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摘要
Foliar accumulation of trace elements (TE) has gained great ecological importance in recent times. The current study tries to evaluate two naturalized common plant species, Pongamia pinnata (Karanj) and Kigelia africana (sausage tree) as biomonitors of trace elements by calculating their trapping efficiency for nine heavy metals-Pb, Fe, Zn, Mn, Ni, Cd, Cr, Co and Cu, at two different land use sites: Site I, vegetated area and Site II, commercial area (polluted). The effect of atmospheric TE was examined by analyzing the plasma membrane intactness and total chlorophyll content of selected plant species. The result depicted that Pongamia sp. is a better trapper of heavy metal (Site I: 0.407 ppm/g leaf sample and Site II: 1.174 ppm/g leaf) as compared to Kigelia sp. (Site I: 0.302 ppm/g leaf and Site II: 0.661 ppm/g leaf). Moreover, leaf samples of both the plants showed high TE pollution at Site II as compared to Site I. The disruption of plasma membrane was more at commercial area (Site II) as compared to vegetated area (Site I) in both the plant samples, with leakage percentage of 48.1 % (Site I) and 65.6 % (Site II) in Pongamia pinnata and 69.47 % (Site I) and 77.51 % (Site II) in Kigelia africana, respectively. The decreased chlorophyll content at Site II (Karanj 1.62 mg/g and sausage 1.23 mg/g) as compared to Site I (Karanj 2.21 mg/g and sausage 1.35 mg/g) further supported the negative effect of the polluted environment of commercial area (Site II). The study clearly illustrates that plant leaf samples can act as efficient biomonitors and implicitly tell about the health of the surrounding environment. However, evaluation and use of biomonitors still needs lot of study for better understanding of complex factors that influence their responses.
- 出版日期2015-12
