Greener Journal of Agricultural Sciences

Greener Journal of  Agricultural Sciences Vol. 3 (10), pp. 725-735, October 2013.

 ISSN: 2276-7770 

Research Paper

Manuscript Number: 082613803

 

Rubber Crumb Pollution Affecting the Growth of Some Leguminous Plants

 

Aamna Rizvi¹, Mohammad Zafar Iqbal¹ and 

Mohammad Athar*^{2, 3}

 

¹Department of Botany, University of Karachi, Karachi- 75270, Pakistan.

²Department of Food Science & Technology, University of Karachi, Karachi- 75270, Pakistan.

³California Department of Food and Agriculture, 3288 Meadowview Road, Sacramento, CA 95832, USA.

 

*Corresponding Author’s Email: atariq @ cdfa. ca. gov

Abstract:

The effect of different concentrations of rubber crumb collected from the vicinity of rubber factories situated in S.I.T.E area Karachi was studied on the seedling growth of Pithecellobium dulce (Roxb) Benth., Adenanthera pavonina L. and Pisum sativum L. under natural environmental conditions.  All the treatments exhibited inhibition of most of growth parameters (shoot length, seedling length, number of leaves, shoot dry weight, leaf dry weight, total plant dry weight and specific leaf area) in P. dulce.  However, A. pavonina showed improved growth in root length, number of leaves, root dry weight, shoot dry weight, leaf dry weight, total dry weight, root/shoot ratio and leaf weight ratio.  P. sativum was the most affected plant as compared to P. dulce and A. pavonina and showed highly declined growth under all the rubber crumb treatments.  P. sativum plants treated with 30% rubber crumb did not survive after two weeks of growth.  This showed that the soil contaminated with rubber crumb drastically affected the plant growth.  The findings of this research could be helpful in monitoring and controlling the pollutant levels in soils of the industrial areas.  Such information could also be useful for landscaping and urban planning.

 

Keywords: Rubber crumb, pollution, seedling growth, leguminous plants, landscaping.

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