Impacts of Particulate Matter Pollution on Plants: Implications for Environmental Biomonitoring

Air pollution is one of the serious problems world is facing in recent Anthropocene era of rapid industrialization and urbanization. Specifically particulate matter (PM) pollution represents a threat to both the environment and human health. The changed ambient environment due to the PM pollutant in urban areas has exerted a profound influence on the morphological, biochemical and physiological status of plants and its responses. Taking into account the characteristics of the vegetation (wide distribution, greater contact area etc.) it turns out to be an effective indicator of the overall impact of PM pollution and harmful effects of PM pollution on vegetation have been reviewed in the present paper, covering an extensive span of 1960 to March 2016. The present review critically describes the impact of PM pollution and its constituents (e.g. heavy metals and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons) on the morphological attributes such as leaf area, leaf number, stomata structure, flowering, growth and reproduction as well as biochemical parameters such as pigment content, enzymes, ascorbic acid, protein, sugar and physiological aspect such as pH and Relative water content. Further, the paper provides a brief overview on the impact of PM on biodiversity and climate change. Moreover, the review emphasizes the genotoxic impacts of PM on plants. Finally, on the basis of such studies tolerant plants as potent biomonitors with high Air Pollution Tolerance Index (APTI) and Air Pollution Index (API) can be screened and may be recommended for green belt development.