Bio monitoring of toxic pollutants in air and leaves of Ficus religiosa in selected sites of Chennai city

Abstract

Biomonitoring of vehicle exhaust and deposits of heavy metal on the leaves of the trees located on the roadside was carried out. The selected site Chennai metropolitan city, the capital of Tamil Nadu is a large city, hence divided the city into three sites such as North Chennai, Central Chennai and South Chennai. From these sites, we selected Ficus religiosa trees that are located alongside the roads where a greater number of vehicles pass by. We examined the atmospheric polluted gases by means of using gas sensors and the pollutants on the leaf samples from all the selected sites of Chennai city. For the present study, Ficus religiosa was chosen which belongs to the family Moraceae (the Mulberry family) to know the atmospheric air pollution in our surroundings and the heavy metals (lead, copper, nickel) deposition on the leaves of the trees through Atomic Absorption spectrometry. The ultimate aim of this work is to bio monitor and correlate the existing particulate matter present in the atmosphere and heavy metal deposition in the Ficus religiosa tree leaves of selected sites of Chennai city. The findings could be used for further studies about pollution monitoring and improve the tolerance in future.