PJB-2017-904
EFFECTS OF ROAD SIDE POLLUTION ON PHYSIO-MORPHOLOGY OF APPLE (MALUS PUMILA MILLER) AT DISTRICT KALAT BALOCHISTAN PAKISTAN
Saeed Ahmed Mughal1*
Abstract
EFFECTS OF ROAD SIDE POLLUTION ON PHYSIO-MORPHOLOGY OF APPLE (MALUS PUMILA MILLER) AT DISTRICT KALAT BALOCHISTAN PAKISTAN Saeed Ahmed Mughal1*, Saadullah Khan Leghari1*, Abdul Kabir Khan Achackzai1, Mudassir Asrar1 and Saeed-Ur-Rahman Kakar1 1Department of Botany University of Balochistan Quetta, Pakistan Corresponding author; E-mail: saeed.mughal92@gmail.com and saadbotany@yahoo.com Abstract Road side (vehicular exhaust) pollution induced significant adverse effects on all types of organisms including plants (commercial crops), animals and humankind. This study was conducted to assess the quantitative and qualitative damages of vehicles exhaust pollution from road side fruit crops (Malus Pumila Miller.) of District Kalat, Balochistan. Experiment was done at 5 sites along the national highway, NH-25, Karachi to Chammon. The results revealed that the under investigated plant species showed significant (P≤0.001) variation in its morphological and physiological characteristics with respect to the control site samples. Over all reducing % age in leaf length (27.13%) and breath (22.04%), petiole length (26.89%), leaf area (36.47%), numbers (46.5 %) and fruits (42.0 %) of diameters, Stem diameter (11.3 %) and canopy (20.8 %) were significantly at polluted site samples as compared to the control site. Similarly consequences indicated that dust fall on leaf surface and relative water contents in leaf increased by 81.92 and 18.92 % in polluted sites with respect to the control respectively. Moreover photosynthetic and transpiration rate, moisture contents in fruits and water use efficiency showed reduction by; 49.30, 40.69, 10.81%, respectively. All these parameters indicate that the road side traffic exhaust pollution accumulate on plants may cause perilous effects on the growth, yield, physiological and morphological characteristics of the commercially value able plants. It can be concluded that as the traffic density is inversely proportional to the growth, yield and other performances of the plant. Keywords: Vehicular pollution, photosynthetic and transpiration rate, morphology, Apple crop
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