1Amity Institute of Environmental Science, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Centre for Environment Science and Climate Resilient Agriculture, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012, India
Sulphur dioxide (SO) and particulate matter (PM) are one of the major air pollutants emerging out of the industrial development and human activities. Plants exhibit differential sensitivityto 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 < bread wheat < barley < 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.
Growth attributes, Particulate matter, SO2 stress, S-uptake
