ASSESSING HEAVY METAL CONTAMINATION IMPACT IN MAIZE GROWING ALONG THE ROADSIDE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47432/2022.38.1.2Keywords:
contamination, dust, environmental degradation, heavy metal, roadsideAbstract
Now a days heavy metal contamination along the roadside is a matter of concern especially in industrial areas of developing countries. The non-degradable nature of heavy metals makes them injurious to all living beings. Soil, dust, and plants are the main media for the entry of these metals into our food chain. Thereby, a survey was conducted to assess the nickel (Ni), copper (Cu) and manganese (Mn) levels in roadside dust, soil and maize crop growing along the roadside. Moreover, the effects of these metals were also assessed on the growth and physiology of maize. Plant, soil, and dust sample were collected from Millat road Faisalabad. Samples were collected from four sites at three different distances (10m, 30m, 60m) from the road. Each site had a distance of 5 km from the other site. As result, metal concentration in soil, dust and maize decreased with increasing distance from the road. Maximum metal concentration in dust, soil and plant was noted at the distance of 10m (Cu 40.1, Mn 189.66 and Ni 5.6 mg kg-1 in soil; Cu 11.3, Mn 179.7 and Ni 9.37 mg kg-1 in dust; Cu 11.8, Mn 23.01 and Ni 3.75 mg kg-1 in plant) from the roadside. Likewise, maize plants near the roadside showed more metal concentration with retarded growth and physiology.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Pakistan Journal of Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering and Veterinary Sciences

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Toview a copy of this license, visit Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International — CC BY-NC 4.0