Relative susceptibility of two species of tropical fruit trees to thermal power plant emission.
Jyoti Singh, Agrawal M., Deo Narayan
Author Affiliation: Centre of Advanced Study in Botany, Banaras Hindu University Varanasi 221 005, India.
Tropical Ecology 35 : 83-96
Abstract : Field experiments were conducted to investigate the responses of two fruit trees (Mangifera indica and Psidium guajava) to emissions from coal-fired power plants in a dry tropical environment. Such species are planted in polluted areas to alleviate pollution and act as biological indicators. Eight study sites were selected to the northeast of Shaktinagar thermal power plant on an 18 km transect through Renusagar thermal power plant, in Uttar Pradesh. Air quality (SO2 concentration, dust fall rate and total suspended particulate (TSP)) at the study sites showed temporal as well as spatial variations. No symptoms of visible injury were detected but considerable reductions in chlorophyll and ascorbic acid contents and specific leaf area were observed at sites receiving higher pollution load. Further, a positive significant correlation between the ambient SO2 concentration and level of SO4-sulphur in leaf tissues, and significant negative correlations between the SO4-S content and chlorophyll and ascorbic acid contents were observed. Mangifera indica was more sensitive to thermal power plant emission than Psidium guajava.