Avinash Agarwal *, Munish Kumar , S. Prajapati, Sunil Dutt, R. Kumar, Kamal Kumar, I. A. Rizvi, and A. K. Chaubey Deptartment of Physics, Bareilly College Bareilly-243005, INDIA Deptartment of Physics, KCMT, Bareilly-243001, INDIA Deptartment of Physic, AMU Aligarh 202002, INDIA Inter University Accelerator Centre, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi 110067, INDIA Physics Department, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia . * email: avibcb@gmail.com
This experimental study showed that aquatic macrophytes, Pistia stratiotes, may be used for phytoremediation of water bodies polluted with heavy metals, Cr and Co in a sustainable way.
Present study was conducted near to a super thermal power plant for the speciation of heavy metals/metalloids contamination of soil and estimation of concentration factor for plant parts (CFPP) of Calotropis procera. The heavy metals selected for speciation in soil and plant parts were Pb, Fe, Cr, Cd, Zn, Ni, V, Co, Mo and Cu and were estimated using AAS-7000(Shimadzu). Reason for selecting the present plant was its abundance in the area vicinity of the power plant. Presence of these heavy metals/metalloids can be attributed to the coal used for combustion from which they are volatised and after condensation are associated to the fly ass. The plant Calotropis procera growing in the area accumulates these metals/metalloids do a significant extent and thus can be used for the plantation in the fly ash dykes so as to minimise the contamination of soil and ambient air with these metals/metalloids.
Abstract To assess the dust interception efficiency of some selected tree species and impact of dust deposition on chlorophyll and ascorbic acid content of leaves the present study was undertaken. The plant species selected for the study were Ficus religiosa, Ficus benghalensis, Mangifera indica, Dalbergia sissoo, Psidium guajava, and Dendrocalamus strictus It was found that all species have maximum dust deposition in the winter season followed by summer and rainy seasons. Chlorophyll content decreased and ascorbic acid content increased with the increase of dust deposition. There was significant negative and positive correlation between dust deposition and chlorophyll and ascorbic acid content, respectively. Maximum dust interception was done by Dalbergia sisso and least by Dendrocalamus strictus Thus plants can be used to intercept dust particles which are of potential health hazards to humans.
Due to overexploitation for forest resources, many important medicinal plants are disappearing from the tropical dry forest (TDF) regions. The present study is aimed to investigate the diversity of medicinal plants exposed to different levels of anthropogenic disturbance in TDFs. For this study, we selected six forest regions, covering a radius of 25 km, and exposed to variable intensity of disturbances, in the form of illegal logging, cattle grazing and fire. Based on the intensity of three disturbances, we categorized the study sites as low (LDS) and high (HDS) disturbed sites, and analyzed differences in soil properties and vegetation parameters in the two disturbance categories. We recorded tree density, tree species richness and herbaceous species richness in 100 m 2 quadrats at the selected regions. Results exhibited significantly greater soil organic C (LDS, 4.6%; HDS, 0.9%; P < 0.001), water holding capacity (LDS, 47.4%; HDS, 33.6%; P < 0.001), and sand content (LDS, 53.7%; HDS, 48.3%; P < 0.001) across LDS, whereas significantly higher bulk density (LDS, 1.30 gcm –3 ; HDS, 1.34 gcm –3 ; P < 0.05) and gravel content (LDS, 14.6%; HDS, 20.0%; P < 0.001) across HDS. We found considerable shift in relationships between vegetation parameters under the two disturbance regimes. The results indicated that many of the important medicinal plants (e.g., Adina cordifolia, Bauhinia vahlii, Holarrhena antidysenterica, Asparagus racemosus, Curculigo orchioides, Hemidesmus indicus , etc.) which are potential constituents of several ayurvedic preparations as well as of traditional medical systems are lacking from the HDS, either due to direct impact of disturbances or indirectly due to disturbance induced changes in soil properties. For instance, the high grazing pressure increased soil compaction, leading to increase in bulk density and decline in water holding capacity of soil. We suggest that forest managers take into consideration the presence of anthropogenic disturbances in their management and conservation efforts of medicinal plants in TDFs.
This study was conducted to observe the seasonal variation trend in leaf chlorophyll a fluorescence of Butea monosperma tree belonging to Fabaceae family. Chlorophyll fluorescence parameters taken for the present study were NPQ = (FM/FM −1) (non-photochemical quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence), Fv/Fm = Fm–Fo/Fm (maximum photochemical quantum yield of photosystem II) and qL = qp.F0ʹ/F' (coefficient of photochemical fluorescence quenching). Chlorophyll a fluorescence of Butea monosperma was measured with the help of JUNIOR‐PAM, Chlorophyll Fluorometer, Heinz Walz GmbH, Germany in December (winter), May (summer) and August (rainy) seasons and also on day 1, day 10 and day 20 of December, May and August. The measurement revealed that the above three fluorescence parameters showed a seasonal variation trend, wherein NPQ and qL followed a similar variation trend while Fv/Fm showed a different trend. NPQ and qL values were maximum in the summer season followed by winter and rainy seasons, while Fv/Fm value was maximum in the rainy season followed by winter and summer seasons. The variations in chlorophyll a fluorescence in different seasons are due to different environmental conditions causing a different degree of stress to Butea monosperma plant in different seasons.
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