Author

Pooja Bansal1,2* and Alka Srivastava1

Abstract

Recently, air pollution existed as a major affair across the globe due to expeditious development activity vide acute urbanization and industrialization. Increment in pollution level serves as a major factor in disturbing the air quality of surrounding areas, which thus necessitates the study of such changes on various groups of plants, to mark them as the best bio-monitors. The diversity of habitats coupled with their structural simplicity and ability to accumulate pollutants suggests the utilization of bryophytes as potential bioindicators of air pollution. In this work, we have evaluated the effect of changing levels of different gaseous pollutants in form of smog, on antioxidative enzyme activity and pigment system of two mosses: Semibarbula orientalis (Web.) Wijk. & Marg. and Physcomitrium eurystomum Sendtn., continuously for seven days. Results demonstrated that catalase and superoxide dismutase activity enhanced as the concentration of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter increased in the atmosphere, whereas the activity of peroxidase was greatly influenced by sulphur dioxide. Chlorophyll contents along with carotenoids were found to be damaged by pollutants like sulphur dioxide. Our results suggest that these mosses can act as day-to-day indicators as well as immediate reflectors of changes in ambient air quality and have the potential to be a reliable biomonitoring system.
 

Doi Number 10.5958/2455-7218.2022.00060.2

Keywords Antioxidants, biochemical parameters, biomonitoring, environmental changes.