Effects Of Air Pollution On Tomato Plants (Lycopersiconesculentum)Grown Along Waiyaki Highwayin Nairobi County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Vehicle exhaust fumes emission, as one ofleading major source amongsmoke producing air

pollutants, wasexamined in thisstudy. Nairobi,a mega-citywith increasingly high levels of air

pollutionwas studied with special emphasison one of its roads,Waiyaki Highway. Objectives

were to find if there is air pollution,air pollution effects growth and stress of plants. This

roadwasinvestigated to gain scientific understanding of the effects of vehicle fumes on plants.

Hotspots (ICEA building, ABC Place, and Kangemi Market), had unique characteristics,

whichincluded moribund trees or plants, dark tree trunks and leaves due to air pollution.

Lycopersicon esculentumMill., (1768), tomato plants that is highly susceptible to air pollution

was exposed to the air at selected sites along the highway. Four experiments were set, (three as

test experiments and one, control) using a raised platform containing twelve plants in polythene

bags and irrigated frequently. For the study analysis, data was collection on pollution level, seed

germination rate, height growth, leaf length, flower count, biomass, stress and stomata account

for three months.Thedatawas analysed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA),Kruskal Wallis

and Poisson distribution in Genestat software. Means were separated by use of Least Significant

Difference (LSD) α = 0.05.The Waiyaki Highway had consistence air pollution, for whole

period of this study (averagingPM1042.6μgm/m3for test sites). The control experiment at NARL

had similar environmental conditions but no significant air pollution(PM10 0.6μgm/m3).The

control experiment was protected from air pollution related to vehicle fumes by long distance

away from the road plus canopies of trees thriving in between to shield experimental plants.

Seed germination rate results, showed that,there were no significant differences at(P