Open AccessCrop adaptation to air pollution I. Effect of particulate and SO2 pollution on growth, yield attributes and sulphur nutrition of wheat, barley and chickpea
Author(s) -
Poonam Yadav,
Renu Dhupper,
S. D. Singh,
Bhupinder Singh
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
indian journal of agricultural research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.241
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 0976-058X
pISSN - 0367-8245
DOI - 10.18805/ijare.a-5273
Subject(s) - particulates , crop , agronomy , dry matter , legume , environmental science , pollution , pollutant , air pollution , particulate pollution , biology , ecology
Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter (PM) are one of the major air pollutants emerging out of the industrial development and human activities. Plants exhibit differential sensitivity to SO2 pollution and its affect on plant growth can be both direct and/or indirect. The present study was conducted in controlled tunnels to assess the effect of particulate matter (PM) and SO2 on growth attributes of two cereals (bread and durum wheat and barley) and a legume (chickpea) species. Relative sensitivity of crops to elevated SO2 followed the following order: durum wheat less than bread wheat less than barley less than chickpea. This study clearly shows that the presence of particulate matter in the growing environment severely inhibits crop growth while the SO2 enriched environment promotes plant growth and S uptake across crops and that the tolerant crop species are capable of utilizing SO2 towards the plant S pool.