Biomonitoring of heavy metals by pollen in urban environment

Abstract

Industrial development and consumption of petroleum products leads to increase air pollution levels especially in urban and industrial areas. Heavy metal components associated with air pollutants have far reaching effects with respect to economic and ecological importance of pollens. The pollens are male reproductive organs of the plant and travel through air from flower to flower for pollination purpose. During this period they are exposed to air pollutants. Present investigation thus pertains to study of effect of air pollutants on pollens especially biosorption and bioaccumulation of heavy metals. The pollens of three commonly occurring plants namely Cassia siamea, Cyperus rotundus, Kigelia pinnata have been studied from the NH-6 of Nagpur city, India. The pollens exposed to polluted air showed the presence of higher concentrations of Ca, Al and Fe as compared to unexposed pollens. Higher concentration of these metals was observed in Cyperus rotundus followed by Cassia siamea and Kigelia pinnata. These results indicate that pollens act as good indicator of air pollution giving results in short time of exposure of 5-10 h. Apart from this, it is also reported that some of these metals play crucial role in the metabolic activity in pollens for example Calcium is necessary for growth of pollen tube and other metabolic activities in pollens. The presence of these metals in pollens may also enhance the allergenicity of the pollens. Similarly accumulation of heavy metals may also deteriorate the quality of pollen for their economical use. The viability of pollen is also affected by these pollutants in sensitive species leading to impairment of their fertility.

The use of honeybees and honey as environmental bioindicators for metals and radionuclides: a review

“…On the basis of the extensive area foraged by bees, and taking into account that the production of 1 kg of honey requires more than 100,000 foraging flights, it is clear that both honeybees and honey could be appropriate random sample substrates that may be highly representative of the average levels of bioavailable pollutants in the foraging area environment. Other diverse bee products (such as propolis, wax and pollen) have been employed as sampling materials to monitor environmental pollution (Celli and Maccagnani 2003;Kalbande et al 2008), but honeybees and honey are the most commonly employed matrices among all the hive products.…”

“…It should be noted that other monitoring studies involving the use of other hiveproducts alone have not been proposed, except in the case of Kalbande et al (2008), who used pollen to biomonitor heavy metals in an urban environment.…”

Essential minerals and inorganic contaminants (barium, cadmium, lithium, lead and vanadium) in dried bee pollen produced in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil

“…A number of minerals such as potassium (K), phosphorus (P), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), sulfur (S), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), and selenium (Se) have been found in bee pollen samples worldwide (Saavedra et al, 2007;Szczêsna, 2007;Kalbande et al, 2008). Minerals are essential for proper regulation of metabolic pathways and physiological processes.…”

Urban green zones and related pollen allergy: A review. Some guidelines for designing spaces with low allergy impact

“…In certain situations, pollen grains may carry micrometer-sized particles into the respiratory tract, thus increasing their allergenic potential (Bartra et al, 2007;Kalbande, Dhadse, Chaudhari, & Wate, 2008).…”