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    The Role of Plants As Indicator For Air Pollution (Mahadi)

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    Muhammad Mahadi
    1. The document discusses plants that can be used as indicators of air pollution, including lichens, algae, moss, herbs, grasses, tulsi, tobacco, and lettuce plants. Each plant type detects different pollutants and shows visible responses even at low pollution levels. 2. Lichens and mosses are especially useful indicators as they absorb pollutants directly from the air. Spanish moss has been shown to absorb air pollutants and exhibit decline related to increased pollution levels. 3. Different plant species show sensitivity to various pollutants like ozone, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Using a variety of plant indicators can help assess air quality and

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    The Role of Plants As Indicator For Air Pollution (Mahadi)

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    Muhammad Mahadi
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    1. The document discusses plants that can be used as indicators of air pollution, including lichens, algae, moss, herbs, grasses, tulsi, tobacco, and lettuce plants. Each plant type detects different pollutants and shows visible responses even at low pollution levels. 2. Lichens and mosses are especially useful indicators as they absorb pollutants directly from the air. Spanish moss has been shown to absorb air pollutants and exhibit decline related to increased pollution levels. 3. Different plant species show sensitivity to various pollutants like ozone, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Using a variety of plant indicators can help assess air quality and

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    1. The document discusses plants that can be used as indicators of air pollution, including lichens, algae, moss, herbs, grasses, tulsi, tobacco, and lettuce plants. Each plant type detects different pollutants and shows visible responses even at low pollution levels. 2. Lichens and mosses are especially useful indicators as they absorb pollutants directly from the air. Spanish moss has been shown to absorb air pollutants and exhibit decline related to increased pollution levels. 3. Different plant species show sensitivity to various pollutants like ozone, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Using a variety of plant indicators can help assess air quality and

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    5K views3 pages

    The Role of Plants As Indicator For Air Pollution (Mahadi)

    Uploaded by

    Muhammad Mahadi
    1. The document discusses plants that can be used as indicators of air pollution, including lichens, algae, moss, herbs, grasses, tulsi, tobacco, and lettuce plants. Each plant type detects different pollutants and shows visible responses even at low pollution levels. 2. Lichens and mosses are especially useful indicators as they absorb pollutants directly from the air. Spanish moss has been shown to absorb air pollutants and exhibit decline related to increased pollution levels. 3. Different plant species show sensitivity to various pollutants like ozone, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Using a variety of plant indicators can help assess air quality and

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    of 3

    The role of plants as indicator for air pollution

    Muhammad Mahadi. Environmental Science Discipline. Khulna University.


    Mobile No : 008801717838118

    Introduction: A plant is used to indicate air quality and locate sources of air pollution
    utilizing known as air “Pollution Indicator Plant.” Indicator plants containing a series of
    chambers, where the particulate matter and chemicals have been removed by a series of filters.
    Bio-indicator plants are very sensitive to a selected (toxic) chemical, they respond quickly with
    typical visible foliar symptoms to the presence of medium-to-low levels of the noxious agent;
    they are very cost-effective and represent a striking visual demonstration unit. The category of
    plants as a indicator of air pollution are discussed below:
    1. Lichen(Parmelia Orthotrichum, Polytrichum)
    2. Algae( Chlamydomonas, Chlorella, Chlorococcum, Chlorosarcina)
    3. Moss Tillandsia usneoides,Sphagnum, Bryum
    4. Herbs and grasses
    5. Tulsi
    6. Tobacco
    7. Lettuce plants
    1. Lichen (Parmelia): For nearly 25 years that lichen growth and health can assess many air
    pollutants and the value of these living organisms rather than man-made instruments for
    assessing sulfur dioxide levels is that they are inexpensive and give quick results. Lichens are
    especially useful in forestry to assess where conifers should be planted since conifers are
    affected by the same sulfur dioxide levels that cause lichen cover to decline. The possibility
    of transplanting healthy lichens into areas suspected of being polluted, and monitoring
    physiological parameters such as respiration and photosynthesis, to give a rapid indication of
    pollution levels is obvious.

    Lichen vegetation could assess air pollution levels was supported by Fenton (1960) while
    Trass (1971) was able to correlated a mean annual sulfur dioxide (SO2) value with his lichen
    index "P" to cover sulfur dioxide levels from less than 10 to 300 mg/m 3.
    2. Algae: Aerial or sub-aerial algae would also be ideal as indicators of air pollution because of
    ease of handling, range of species specific sensitivity which is greater than in higher plants
    and much quicker physiological responses to air chemistry than occur in high plants. Many
    of the cortecolous, lithophilous and epiphytic algae, liverworts, fern gametophytes are ideally
    suited as air biological monitoring organisms. Using both pollution tolerant and pollution
    sensitive species would be best for air quality indication.
    Especially suitable as test organisms in the Air Biomonitor are the microalgae found in both
    aerial and subaerial habitats such as species of Chlamydomonas, Chlorella, Chlorococcum,
    Chlorosarcina, Chlorosarcinopsis, Gloeocystis, Chlorhormidium Pleurococcus,Stichococcus,
    Trebouxia, Chroococcus, Gloeocapsa, Nostoc, Oscillatoria, Schizothrix, and Scytonema and
    the diatoms- Navicula and Nitzschia.

    1 | Page
    The role of plants as indicator for air pollution
    Muhammad Mahadi. Environmental Science Discipline. Khulna University.
    Mobile No : 008801717838118
    3. Moss (Tillandsia): Tillandsia usneoides is an indicator species to air pollution, that its
    decline is directly related to raised levels of air pollution, and that the most acidic pollutants
    are the most harmful. Air pollutants are absorbed by Spanish moss. An experiment was
    formulated with two stages: the first, stage involved taking air samples in Houston and
    testing for the quantity of specific pollutants using a gas chromatograph and the second stage
    was putting Spanish moss in an Environmental Study Chamber (ESC), which is a closed
    system, and exposing it to the pollutants found in the air samples.

    Tillandsia usneoides, commonly called Spanish moss, is a relative of the pineapple (order
    Bromeliales, family Bromeliaceae, genus Tillandsia (air plant), and species usneoides)
    (Spanish moss). In fact, it is an epiphyte, a plant that gains all of its moisture and nutrients
    from the air (Arny). The thin trichomes (scales) that cover the whole plant, these trichomes
    play an important role in the absorption of moisture and nutrients from the air. The trachomas
    act as pumps, and draw moisture and dissolved minerals into the plants through the stomata
    (Arny). This indicates that whatever is present in the air—including pollutants—will be
    absorbed by the plants.

    4. Herbs and grasses: Changes in sensitive species of herbs and grasses occur much earlier
    than in shrub and tree populations. Generally, the degree of ‘Crown die-back’ and death of
    trees is directly related to the level of SO2, NO2 HF and HCl pollution of air.
    5. Tulsi: Tulsi is sensitive to pollution and a minor change in pollution level is also been
    detected by this plant. Certain visual observations on the plant supported our prediction that
    Tulsi can be used as effective bioindicator for autoexhaust pollution. Tulsi act as bio-
    indicator for determing the increased level of nitrogen and sulphur status in atmosphere.
    6. Tobacco: Biomonitoring of ozone with tobacco is miniaturized kit based on tobacco
    seedlings (Nicotiana tabacum L.) cultivars Bel-W3 (O3-supersensitive) and Bel-B (O3-
    resistant). The biomonitoring units consisted of polystyrene tissue-culture plates with wells
    filled with organic compost; each well held a 10-day-old tobacco seedling, raised in a
    controlled environment.
    7. Lettuce plants: Lettuce plants as bioaccumulations of trace elements Homogeneous adult
    lettuce plants, Lactuca sativa raised in a greenhouse were exposed to ambient air in 15 dm3
    containers at nine stations and regularly provided with water until field capacity.

    Plant species Reported sensitivity to pollutants


    Tobacco O3
    Beans O3, So2
    Squash O3, So2
    Water melon O3
    Tomato O3
    Lichens O3, So2, Nox

    2 | Page
    The role of plants as indicator for air pollution
    Muhammad Mahadi. Environmental Science Discipline. Khulna University.
    Mobile No : 008801717838118

    Table: Plant bio-indicators for determining the presence of air pollutants

    Conclusion: The rate of accumulation of air pollutants in the lichen, moss, tobacco, tulsi or
    algal plants can be determined by means such as biomass decrease or increase per unit time,
    pigment analysis, rate of respiration or photosynthesis and heavy metal or isotope accumulation.

    Reference:

    1. www.environmentofearth.wordpress.com/tag/pollution-indicator-plants
    2. K C Agarwal. ‘Environmental Pollution Causes, Effects and Control’. 2001.
    3. G K Ghosh. ‘Environmental Pollution ¾ Scientific Dimension’. 1992, New Delhi

    4. www.rsc.org/ej/EM/2004/b316800j.pdf

    5. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15237296

    6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioindicator

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