Floristic diversity in urban forest area of NEERI Campus, Nagpur, Maharashtra (India).

This study has been carried out to assess the diverse floristic wealth in urban forest area of NEERI campus at Nagpur, Maharashtra (India). This urban forest is ecologically important to maintain the atmospheric temperature around 2 degrees C below and higher relative humidity as compared to other urban areas. The water table is also observed to be shallower in this area as compared to other areas. Therefore, the biological diversity of this urban forest was studied, as it is directly related to ecology of the area. Floristic survey of NEERI premises recorded 135 vascular plants including 16 monocots and 119 dicots, belonging to 115 genera and 53 families. The taxa included 4 types of grasses, 55 herbs, 30 shrubs and 46 trees. The large number of species within very small area (43 ha) indicates rich biodiversity in this forest area. It is also observed that this forest patch has tall trees, with good density and rich cover of shrubs and herbs on forest floor indicating well knit plant community. These characteristics have given immense ecological importance to this urban forest area. Detailed vegetation study revealed that positive co-operation in the plant communities can significantly maintain species diversity in the environment.

Bioindicators of pollution in lentic water bodies of Nagpur city.

The present study deals with assessment of water quality of four selected lakes in the Nagpur city using physicochemical and biological parameters especially phytoplankton and zooplankton community. Tropic level and pollution status of lakes were assessed on the basis of the Palmer's Pollution Index, Shannon Wiener Index and physico-chemical parameters. 57 genera belonging to 7 groups of phytoplankton and 10 genera belonging to 3 groups of zooplankton were identified from the lakes. Different patterns of dominance and sub-dominance of indicator plankton community and species along with physico-chemical quality observed confirm the pollution status of the lakes.

A study on major inorganic ion composition of atmospheric aerosols.

Atmospheric aerosol samples were collected from Akola and Buldana region covering around 40 sqkm area during October-November 2002 and were analyzed for ten major inorganic ions namely F-, Cl-, NO3-, SO4(2-), PO4(2-), Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and NH4+ using ion chromatographic technique. The average mass of aerosols was found to be 225.81 microg/m3 with standard deviation of 31.29 and average total water soluble load of total cations and anions was found to be 4.32 microg/m3. The concentration of ions in samples showed a general pattern as SO4(2-) > NO3- > Cl- > PO4(2-) > F- for anions and Na+ > Ca2+ > NH4+ > Mg2+ > K+ for cations. The overall composition of the aerosols was taken into account to identify the sources. The trend showed higher concentration of sodium followed by calcium, sulfate, nitrate, phosphate and ammoinum and found to be influenced by terrestrial sources. The presence of SO4(2-) and NO3- in aerosols may be due to re-suspension of soil particles. Ca2+, Mg2+ and Cl- are to be derived from soil materials. The presence of NH4+ may be attributed to the reaction of NH3 vapors with acidic gases may react or condense on an acidic particle surface of anthropogenic origin. The atmospheric aerosol is slightly acidic due to neutralization of basicity by SO2 and NO(x).