Responses in Plants Exposed to Dust Pollution

Dust particles form a major part of air pollutants arising due to industrial processes and pose serious threat to the ecosystem. In India 30-35% of air pollutants comprises of dust particles. Activities such as coal mining, quarrying, stone crushing, thermal power plants, cement industries etc., adds huge quantities of dust to the environment. The current scenario of large scale deforestation; destruction of biota and other ecosystem components are being attributed to be the effect of dust pollution [1]. Aerosols being small enough to be suspended in air have an affinity to adhere to the solid surface coming in contact with it. When the air current passes through a tree, some portion of the dust particle adhere to the upper and lower portion of the leaves, some of these are bounced back or deposited elsewhere depending upon the size and character of the particle, wind velocity and the surface area of deposition [2]. After deposition dust particles have a tendency to stick to the leaf surfaces for a definite period of time till they get washed off with rain or shredding of the leaf itself. Particle having size lesser than diameter of stomata apertures directly enters the sub-stomatal cavity and comes in contact with the spongy parenchyma of the leaf tissue, larger particles gets access into the leaf interior by getting dissolved in water and carbonic acid discharged by the stomata itself. Plants grasp the dust and loam of topsoil; the soil-inhabitant tiny plants also reduce air-pollutants and break or degrade many poisonous chemicals those go into the soil [3].