Impacts of Tanneries Wastewater on Agronomical & Biochemical Aspects of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)

Abstract

This research study deals with the impacts of tanneries wastewater on agronomical and biochemical aspects of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa). To determine the affects of tanneries wastewater on above mentioned plant, wastewater was taken from Kasur tannery treatment plant. The wastewater was found alkaline along with high biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), electrical conductivity (EC) & sodium absorption ratio (SAR) along with huge amount of total settleable solids (TSS) and total dissolve solids (TDS). The number of heavy metals in the effluent was quite high. The wastewater was diluted up to four concentrations ranging from 25-100%. Treatment was given to 15 days old seedling. The tanneries effluent affects were investigated against both agronomical and biochemical aspects of lettuce. Plant height, dry & fresh weight of plant, leaf & root decreases with increase in effluent concentration as compared to control. Tanneries wastewater significantly affected the height of plant (p<0.0001), had highly significant affect (p<0.0001) on dry & fresh weight of whole plant & root, the overall impact on dry & fresh weight of leaves was significant (p<0.05). The chlorophyll content and protein content decrease with increase in effluent concentrations. Tanneries wastewater had very significant affect on chlorophyll content of leaves (p<0.001)., significantly affected the protein content in lettuce leaves (p<0.05). The uptake of heavy metals increases with increase in effluent concentrations & the affect of tanneries wastewater on uptake of trace elements was highly significant (p<0.0001). These heavy metals biomagnified at different trophic levels and enter the food chain thus cause serious health problems, also destroy the ecosystem