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Air Pollution Stress and Plant Response

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Plant Responses to Air Pollution

Abstract

Air pollution is a major problem in modern society. During the last century, the interactions between plants and different types of air pollutants were investigated: many studies on the influence of environmental pollution were focused on physiological, biochemical and ultrastructural aspects. The cuticle covers the epidermis external walls from all aerial organs of plants, and it is the main barrier between the plant body and the environment. Therefore, there was a permanent contact between cuticular surface and various pollutants from the atmosphere. If the interaction between air pollutants and the leaves affects the cuticle, the changes in its structure can be considered as biomarkers of air pollution and it can serve in diagnosis. Urban pollution is responsible for the damage of trichomes, cuticle and stomatal guard cells, significantly affecting foliar morphology. Scanning electron microscopy investigations of the leaves from plants growing in polluted sites revealed a remarkable difference in size of the stomatal pores, ruptured of the guard cells, damage of cuticle and epicuticular wax. Some authors investigated structural modifications which occurred in the vegetative organs of different species of plants under the effect of air pollution. The reaction of different species to the modified environmental conditions is strongly correlated with their structural and functional features. In our case studies, the plants originating from extensively polluted areas shows substantial changes in their anatomy; assimilatory tissues contain elevated amounts of tannin or polyphenolic compounds; frequency of the calcium oxalate crystals is increased; and transfusion parenchyma shows the highest degree of alterations. Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) is expected to increase with increasing stress. Our results show that higher asymmetry levels were observed in unpolluted sites than in polluted sites. These data indicating that plants living in the stressful habitats are more symmetrical and consequently these three cosmopolite species could be used as an ‘index of habitat quality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania

    Irina Gostin

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  1. Irina Gostin
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Correspondence to Irina Gostin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

    Umesh Kulshrestha

  2. School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

    Pallavi Saxena

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Gostin, I. (2016). Air Pollution Stress and Plant Response. In: Kulshrestha, U., Saxena, P. (eds) Plant Responses to Air Pollution. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1201-3_10

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