Effect Of Ambient Air Pollutants On Wheat and Mustard Crops Growing In The Vicinity Of Urban and Industrial Areas

The study aimed to appraise the effect of different air pollutants viz. SO2, NOx, SPM and RSPM on biophysiological as well as yield characteristics of wheat and mustard plants grown at different sites in the urban and industrial areas of Haridwar City. The ambient levels of air pollutants were lowest at site 2 and 4 and hence these sites were treated as control sites for comparing the response pattern observed at site 1 and 3, respectively. The wheat and mustard plants grown at polluted sites (1 and 3) showed significant reduction in total chlorophyll, carotenoid, ascorbic acid, plant height, shoot fresh weight, root fresh weight and yield. The study indicated that parameters reductions in wheat and mustard grown at polluted sited correlated directly with the gaseous and particulate pollutants, which led to lower yield at polluted sites experiencing higher levels of pollutants. [New York Science Journal. 2010;3(2):52-60]. (ISSN: 1554-0200).