Caracterización del material particulado PM10 y su efecto fitotóxico en las semillas de lechuga (Lactuca sativa), rábano (Raphanus sativus) y brócoli (Brassica oleracea itálica)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the phytotoxic effect of the Particulate Matter (PM10) collected at three monitoring points in the city of Cuenca. The samples were collected by Center for Environmental Studies (CEA) of the University of Cuenca in 2014, using the method described in the Unified Text of Secondary Legislation of the Ministry of the Environment (TULSMA), using a high volume sampler. We also performed the characterization of heavy metals present in the city air through the chemical analysis of water soluble solutions of Particulate Material. The phytotoxicity of PM10 was evaluated in seeds of lettuce (Lactuca sativa), radish (Raphanus sativus) and broccoli (Brassica oleracea italica) at different concentrations; (100%, 10%, 1%, 0.1%) of the same PM10 that were prepared in the laboratory of the Center for Environmental Studies (CEA) with a dilution factor of 10, After the recommended exposure time for short-duration bioassays by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the seeds against the contaminant, the length of the radicle and hypocotyl were measured, then the data obtained were analyzed in the program Statistic IBM SPSS Statistics 22 in which the means were determined with their respective standard deviation of the growth of the radicle and hypocotyl of each seed species, determining in this way if there are significant differences of these growths with respect to the controls, in addition the Calculation of the average inhibitory concentration (IC50) with the data of the germination of the seeds which allowed us to establish the level of incidence of PM10 on vegetables