Environmental sampling involves monitoring changes in environmental states to gather data on pollution and health indicators. Biomonitoring uses various bioindicator species to assess environmental quality by observing biological responses to pollutants. The document outlines the classification and applications of bioindicators, their advantages over traditional methods, and includes a case study on air pollution tolerance in roadside plants.

1. Environmental sampling
 Environmental sampling is defined as an
observation of changing environmental states.
 The goal of sampling is information mining about
the frequency distribution of environmental data
or about their probability distribution parameters.

2. Biomonitoring

3. Biomonitoring
 The practical use of biological indicators to monitor
environmental quality has a long history.
Centuries back it was used in observation of:
effect of sulfur dioxide on the vegetation surrounding
smelters;
effect of pollutants on the population of flora and fauna
living in natural waters.
 What is biomonitoring?

4. Bioindicator species
 Bioindicators are the organism that indicate or
monitor the health of the environment.
 A good bioindicator will indicate the presence of
the pollutant and also attempt to provide
additional information about the amount and
intensity of the exposure.

5. BIOINDICTOR SPECIES

6. How are bioindicator species used
 Different bioindicators are sensitive to different
types of changes.
 Scientists observe changes in the populations of
animal and plant bioindicators to see if an
environment is healthy .
 Biological response of bioindicator reveals the
presence of the pollutants by the occurrence of
typical symptoms or measurable responses, and is
therefore more qualitative .

7. CLASSIFICATION OF BIOINDICATORS
1. BASED ON THE AIM OF INDICATORS
• COMPLIANCE INDICATORS –E.g. fish population attributes are
measured at the population, community or ecosystem levels
and are focused on issues such as the sustainability of
population.
• DIAGNOSTIC INDICATORS – They are used to measure on the
individual or sub organism (biomarker)
• EARLY WARNING INDICATORS – They focus on rapid and
sensitive response to environmental changes.
• ACCUMULATION INDICATORS – They are distinguished for
toxic effects bioindicator, with the effects being studied on
different biological organisation level e.g. lichens , mussels
etc.

8. 2. BASED ON THE APPLICATIONS OF INDICATORS
ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATOR
 This is a species or group of species responding predictably to
environmental disturbances or change (e.g. sentinels, detector,
exploiters, accumulators, bioassay organisms).
 An environmental indicators system is an act set of indicators
aiming at diagnosing the state of the environment for
environmental policy making.

9. 2. BASED ON THE APPLICATIONS OF INDICATORS
ECOLOGICAL INDICATOR
 This is a species that is known to be sensitive to pollution,
habitat fragmentation or other stresses.
 The response of the indicator is representative for the
community.

10. 2. BASED ON THE APPLICATIONS OF INDICATORS
BIODIVERSITY INDICATOR
 Indicator for species richness of a community.
 However, the definition has been broadened to
measurable parameter of biodiversity including species
richness, endemism, genetic parameter, population-
specific parameter and landscape parameter

11. BASED ON INTERNATIONAL UNION OF BIOLOGICAL
SCIENCES (IUBS) BIOINDICATORS ARE GROUPED
INTO :
 Microbial system
 Plant system
 Animal system
 Cell biology and genetics system

12. Microbial system
 Microorganisms are
diverse group of
organisms found in large
quantities and are easier
to detect and sample.
 The presence of some
microorganisms is well
correlated with particular
type of pollution and it
serves as standard
indicator of pollution.

13. Some bioindicators indicating status of
aquatic systems
Microorganism/bacteria Status
Escherichia coli Faecal origin
Streptococcus faecalis -do-
Kliebsella -do-
Clostridium perfringens -do-
Spirillium volutants pores Industrial chemicals and
toxic wastes

14. Bioluminescent bacteria as
bioindicators
 Bioluminescent bacteria are used to
test water for environmental toxins.
 If there are toxins present in the
water, the cellular metabolism of
bacteria is inhibited or disrupted.
 This affects quality or amount of
light emitted by bacteria.
 It is very quick method and takes just
30 minutes to complete but could not
identify the toxin.
Vibrio fischeri

15. PLANT SYSTEM
 The presence or absence of certain plant or other
vegetative life in an ecosystem can provide
important
clues about the health of the environment.
 They can be from both higher and lower classes of
Plantae

16. PLANT SYSTEM
Lower plants
 Different plants indicate the nature of environment.
The susceptibility of resistance towards a substance in
the environment varies with species, e.g. lichens
 Lichens are alga and fungi living symbiotically
(they have to live together to survive) Lichens can live in
extreme conditions, but they hate pollution
 The cleaner the air the bigger and more elaborate the
lichen. So by looking at the lichens growing in a certain
area you can tell how bad the air pollution is

17. Indicator lichens

18. Lower plants
 Changes in Diatom
community , decrease
in plankton algae and
aquatic hydrophyte
indicated increased
water acidity .
 Specific changes in
aquatic flora can
indicate the pH of the
fresh water correctly

19. Higher plants
• Various groups of higher plants serve as bioindicators.
• Sensitive species are employed to detect and monitor
specific air pollutants.
• Studies on higher plants are more specified on its
ability to indicate the heavy metal pollution in water.

20. Higher plants
• The chlortic flakes of pine needle are good
examples of ozone damages. The collapse,
glazing and bronzing of leaf cells are products
of damage by peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN).
• Caesalpinia pulcherrima and grass (Cyndon
dactylon) was evaluated as the bioindicators
of heavy metals such as the Lead (Pb), Copper
(Cu), Cadmium (Cd), Manganese (Mn), Zinc
(Zn), Chromium (Cr) and Nickel (Ni)

21. Higher plants
 Abundance of Eichhornia
indicates sewage and heavy
metal pollution of water.
 Equisetum spp. Indicate the
presence of gold in the soil.
 Annual weeds and short lived
perennials like Amaranthus,
Chenopodium and Polygonum
etc. grow better in overgrazed
areas. They are the indicators
of overgrazing .

22. ANIMAL SYSTEM
 An increase or decrease in an animal population
may indicate damage to ecosystem caused by
pollution.
 In addition to monitoring the size and number of
certain species, other mechanisms of animal
indication include monitoring the concentration of
toxins in animal tissues, or monitoring the rate at
which deformities arise in animal population.

23. ANIMAL SYSTEM
 Earthworm density and biomass are
strongly influence by contamination.
Therefore the earth worm is used as
bioindicator to determine acute
toxicity.
 Frogs are considered accurate
indicators of environmental stress and
the health of biosphere as a whole.
 Fish is a good indicator of water
pollution.
 Macro invertebrates are often used as
bioindicators because they are very
sensitive to pollution, excess nutrients,
increased turbidity, chlorine, etc.

24. CELL BIOLOGY, GENETICS
SYSTEM
 Cellular and sub-cellular components, including
chromosomes, adapted to specific environmental
conditions, form an excellent parameter for
bioindicator.
 Many animals show behavioural responses following
the detection of environmental changes in the
functioning of endocrine, nervous, muscular,
cardiovascular and excretory systems.
 Such changes may be investigated at morphological,
biochemical or physiological levels and can indicate
the presence of toxic substances.

25. Criteria for selecting
bioindicator
 Sensitivity – dose responsiveness to specific
stressors.
 Specificity – responds to specific stressors
 Broad Applicability – over temporal and spatial scale.
 Representativeness – role as surrogate for other
responses.
 Cost – reasonable for available resources and scope
of study.

26. Bioindicator and biomonitoring
 Bioindicators qualitatively assesses biotic responses to
environmental stress (e.g., presence of the lichen,
indicates poor air quality) while biomonitors
quantitatively determine a response (e.g., reductions in
lichen chlorophyll content or diversity indicates the
presence and severity of air pollution)
 Chemical measurement of pollutant area is like
snapshot of that area while biological measurement is
like taking video tape.
 Bioindicators actually indicate the general toxicity of
the environment , without telling the exact quantity of
the toxicity.

27. Why Are Bioindicators Better
than Traditional Methods?
 Scientists have traditionally conducted chemical assays and
directly measured physical parameters of the environment (e.g.,
ambient temperature, salinity, nutrients, pollutants, available
light and gas levels), whereas the use of bioindicators uses the
biota to assess the cumulative impacts of both chemical
pollutants and habitat alterations over time.

28. Why Are Bioindicators Better
than Traditional Methods?
 Bioindicators have the ability to indicate indirect
biotic effects of pollutants when many physical or
chemical measurements cannot.
 Through bioindicators scientists need to observe only
the single indicating species to check on the
environment , they don’t have to monitor whole
community.

29. CASE STUDY: Roadside Plants as Bio-indicators of
Urban Air Pollution A.P Deepalakshmi, et al.
 Case study describes about air pollution tolerance
among roadside plants exposed to varying degrees of
vehicular pollutants.
 Evaluation of air pollution tolerance index (APTI) of 10
selected wild plant species was carried out to assess
their response to ambient levels of air pollutants along
the busy roadways of Bangalore.
 Four parameters namely total chlorophyll, ascorbic
acid, pH of leaf extract and relative water content
were determined and computed together to signify air
pollution tolerance index (APTI) of plants.

30. Plants selected

31. RESULTS
 The observed significant reduction in total
chlorophyll, ascorbic acid and relative water content
showed inverse relationship with traffic density.
 Similarly, pH of leaf extract followed an exponential
decrease with increase in traffic density and drifted
towards acidic range.
 Comparison of APTI values from control to polluted
sites revealed maximum reduction in Bougainvillea
spectabilis while least change was noted in
Peltophorum pterocarpum.

32. RESULTS
 While Peltophorum pterocarpum and Portulaca
oleraceae are tolerant species since they have shown
least percent reduction in APTI.
 Among the plants studied maximum net percent
reduction of APTI over control was seen in Bougainvillea
spectabilis and Ageratum conyzoides and are considered
to be sensitive species.

33. CASE STUDY -CONCLUSION
 Air pollution has been considered as a potential
selection force for plants, therefore the species
growing in such adverse roadside environment
present the best material to ascertain the levels
of susceptibility rather than drawing interpretations
from measurements obtained from lab conditions.
 APTI determination provides a reliable method
for screening large number of plants with
respect to their response to air pollutants

34. CONCLUSION
 Bioindicator have a remarkable potential in
forecasting of disasters, prevention of pollution,
exploration and conservation of natural resources,
all aiming at a sustainable development with
minimum destruction of the biosphere
 Bioindicator can be applied in predicting the
impact of anthropogenic activities particularly
pollutants and predicting environmental change in
a timely manner.

35. REFERENCE
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