Environmental Biotechnology

Project Description

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports and published literatures have shown that the concentrations of ozone (O3) at ground level has increased 60–100% during last century due to industrialization, climate change and other anthropogenic sources and expected to increase upto 18% by 2100. Similarly, Nitrogen (N) deposition at ground level has increased 25 kg N ha-1 year-1 in Europe, 50-100 kg N ha-1 year-1 in the Netherlands and 3.1 to 18.2 kg N ha-1 year-1 in Japan. The high levels O3 and N in atmosphere are considered as pollutants and decreased the growth of both agricultural crops and forest trees worldwide and particularly in Asian countries. For example, several tree species such as Pines, larch, Ermani’s birch and fir in the mountainous areas of Europe, America, Australia and Japan are declining and possible causes of this decline are O3 and N deposition. The majority of forests’s rhizospheres are symbiotically colonized by ectomycorrhizal fungi (ECM) and ECM help the host in uptake of water and nutrients. Although many studies have been conducted worldwide on physiological responses of forest trees to elevated O3 and microorganisms present in the forest rhizosphere. However, in Pakistan, we could not find even a single study on this topic. Therefore, in this study, the effects of different level of O3 and high nitrogen on three most important pines tress i) deodar (Cedrus deodara), ii) chir pine(Pinus roxburghii), iii) morinda spruce  (Picea smithiana) of Pakistan and their symbiotic relationship with ECM will be studied. In addition, growth and diversity of forest plants changed by changing the soil types such as serpentine soil is outcropped in many parts of the world due to an excess of toxic metals and low levels of essential nutrients. In this research, we will grow seedlings of three selected pine trees of Pakistan on serpentine, immature volcanic and brown forest soils with and without inoculation with ECM in order to find out the best pines trees and ECM species for different soils. The possible outcome of this research will be that the pine trees and symbiotic ECM fungi species that are most suitable to survive and grow on different soils become available for afforestation, as climates change and the risk of O3 pollution and/or nitrogen deposition increases. 

Project Funding

Sr. No.Funding BodyFunds
1 HEC 6.5 Million Rupee

Members

  • Dr. Arshid  Pervez
  • Dr. Rafiq  Ahmad
  • Dr. Sabaz Ali Khan