Responses of Some Crops to Air Pollution by Using Air Pollution Tolerance Index
Date
2020
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Botany
Abstract
Responses of plants toward the air pollution were assessed by air pollution tolerance
index (APTI). APTI is calculated from the values of different biochemical parameters
of plant leaves such as relative water content, total chlorophyll content, ascorbic acid
content, and leaf extract pH by using standard methods. Plants with a high index value
were tolerant of air pollutants and vice-versa. Based on their indices, different plant
groups were categorized into sensitive, intermediate, and tolerant. This study was
aimed to identify the most tolerant and sensitive crop plants. The present study was
carried out to evaluate the air pollution tolerance index (APTI) of eight economically
important winter crop plants. Plants were cultivated in polluted site 1 (Thamel),
polluted site 2 (Banasthali), and less-polluted site (Phutung) in Kathmandu based on
vehicular movement. The result of the study showed higher APTI values in polluted
site 1 than in less-polluted sites and polluted site 2. Among the studied species,
Brassica juncea (10.69±1.07), Brassica campestris (10.45±0.88), Triticum aestivum
(9.74±0.77) and Hordeum vulgare (9.64±1.00) respectively were recorded high APTI
values indicating resistance to pollution and Trigonella foenum-graecum (7.52±2.08)
with the lowest APTI value indicating sensitive to pollution. The impact of the air
pollutants on crop productivity was also measured from the selected crop plants. The
result revealed that plant growth was found to be reduced in polluted sites. And
Triticum aestivum (64.48±31.53
kg ha
-1
) was a high productivity crop plant while low
was Trigonella foenum-graecum (2.09±0.68
kg ha
-1
). The response of crop plants was
varied in species, studied sites, and level of pollution. Hence, this study helps to
identify the tolerant crop plant which can act as a good absorbent of air pollutants.
Description
Keywords
Relative water content, Total chlorophyll content, Ascorbic acid content, Leaf extract pH