Biodiversity of roadside plants and their response to air pollution in an Indo-Burma hotspot region: implications for urban ecosystem restoration

In recent Anthropocene, biodiversity of urban roadside plants is now increasingly being realized as an eco-sustainable tool for monitoring and mitigation of air pollution. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of particulate matter (PM) pollutants on leaf morphology (stomata), biochemical (heavy metals, protein, and sugars) parameters and enzyme activity (peroxidase and catalase) of 12 common roadside plant species, growing at two different sites of Aizawl City, i.e. the Ramrikawn (RKN-Med; polluted peri-urban) site and the Mizoram University (MZU-Low; less polluted rural) site. The highest dust deposition was noted for the RKN-Med site on Ficus benghalensis and the lowest in Bauhinia variegate. The plant species growing at the RKN-Med site showed significant decreases in stomatal size and stomatal index (p ˂ 0.05). Further, increased concentration of heavy metals (Fe, Cu, and Zn) was recorded at the RKN-Med site. Moreover, tolerant roadside plants find their suitability for plantation in ecologically sensitive regions, having implications for urban ecosystem restoration.