Pak. J. Bot., 46(3): 869-873, 2014. |
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Updated: 05-06-14 | ||||
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ALSTONIA SCHOLARIS (L.) R.Br.- PLANTED BIOINDICATOR ALONG DIFFERENT ROAD-SIDES OF LAHORE CITY
SOHAIB MUHAMMAD1*, ZAHEER-UD-DIN KHAN1, AYESHA ZAHEER2, MUHAMMAD FAHEEM SIDDIQUI3*, MUHAMMAD FAISAL MASOOD4 AND ATTA MUHAMMAD SARANGZAI5
Abstract: A research work was carried out during 2009-2011 to
investigate the biomonitoring potential of a road avenue tree, Alstonia scholaris (L.) R.Br. against the culminating
pressure of aerial pollution in Lahore city. For this purpose seven busiest roads were selected on the basis of the flux of
traffic and three leaf samples were taken for various biochemical and physiological attributes from each of the A. scholaris
tree of respective road. The geographic coordinates on the map can be used for future reference. Various floral attributes of
plant were selected i.e., amount of dust (g), percent (%) leaf moisture content, photosynthetic rate (μMm-2S-1), transpiration
rate (μMm-2S-1), stomatal conductance (mMm-2S-1), chlorophyll contents (mg/g) and amount of carotenoids (mg/g) in the
leaf samples. In case of % leaf moisture content, significant variation between the control (61.95) and road side
plants (50.76) was observed. While minute differences between the control and road side plants were recorded in
photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance,
chlorophyll contents and carotenoids, which is an indication that
day by day increasing air pollution pressure in Lahore city is playing pivotal role, not only in the morphological features of
the plant but also affecting the physiological and biochemical 1Department of Botany, 2Sustainable Development Study Center, GC University, Lahore, Pakistan (54000) 3Department of Botany, University of Karachi, Karachi-75300, Pakistan 4Forest GIS Laboratory, Lahore, Pakistan 5Department of Botany, University of Baluchistan, Quetta-Pakistan *Corresponding e-mail: sohaibs1983@gmail.com; mfsiddiqui2011@yahoo.com |
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