Deposition and Impact of Urban Atmospheric Dust on Two Medicinal Plants during Different Seasons in NCR Delhi

Abstract

This study reports dustfall deposition on foliar surfaces of two medicinally important plant species i.e., Arjun (Terminalia arjuna) and Morus (Morus alba) in relation with its impact on biochemical constituents and surfaces morphology of the foliar. The study was carried out at a residential (JNU) and an industrial site (SB) of National Capital Region (NCR) Delhi. The results showed that at the industrial site, the dustfall fluxes were almost 2.5 times higher than that at the residential site. Dustfall fluxes were noticed higher on Morus foliar than Arjun foliar as the roughness of Morus foliar is greater. ) ions were also calculated by analyzing aqueous extract of dustfall at both the site. The results showed that with the increase in dustfall fluxes on the foliar surfaces, the levels of photosynthetic pigments and soluble sugar decreased while the levels of ascorbic and proline amino acid were increased at both the sites for both the plants. Dustfall fluxes had distinct seasonality having the order of fluxes as winter > summer > monsoon. Surface morphological study revealed that dust deposition adversely affects the foliar surface, cuticle and epidermal layers. Dust particle deposition ruptures and blocks the stomatal pores. As compared to the residential site, the foliar samples collected from the industrial site showed a more significant impact of dust on biochemical constituents and surface morphology.

Satellite-Surface Perspectives of Air Quality and Aerosol-Cloud Effects on the Environment: An Overview of 7-SEAS/BASELInE

“…For example, sugar and sugar alcohol compounds, fatty acids, phthalate esters, aromatic acids, poly-acids and biogenic oxidation products were identified in biomass-burning PM 2.5 ; their potential as health hazards is the subject of a future study. In addition, Gupta et al (2016) studied the effects of dustfall deposition on foilar surfaces of two medicinally important plant species. In terms of surface morphology and biochemical constituents, it was found that dust deposition caused adverse effects on the foliar surface, cuticle and epidermal layers.…”

Relationships between Plant Communities and Environmental Factors in an Extremely Arid Area: A Case Study in China

“…Generally speaking, there are some changes in the composition and coverage by plant communities during different water transport seasons [34][35]. However, the results of the present study only represent the plant community situation in summer 2017, which means it only covers a small part of the changes in the distribution and composition of plant communities in the lower reaches of the Tarim.…”

Assessment of Indoor Air Pollution through Fine Particle Capturing Potential and Accumulation on Plant Foliage in Delhi, India

“…Aqueous extract of the dustfall obtained from foliar surfaces were examined for their ionic composition using Ion Chromatography (Metrohm 883 Basic IC Plus). The aqueous extract of the dustfall was prepared by plucking the tagged leaves after 10 days and carefully washing with 50 ml distilled deionized water using the method given by Gupta et al (2016) (Gupta et al, 2016). As control, the aqueous extracts of the clean leaves having no dust deposition were treated as blanks following the identical extraction procedure.…”

“…Chemical analysis of the aqueous extracts of the blanks showed peak areas below detection limits for the anions and cations. Similarly, the blanks of petriplates used for the extraction process were also taken to ascertain the quality of sampling and analysis for extraction procedure following the method given elsewhere (Gupta et al, 2016).…”