CHEMISTRY

INVESTIGATORY PROJECT
Submitted for
ANNUAL EXAMINATION
2021-2022

INVESTIGATION ON ENVIRONMENTAL
POLLUTION

Done By
DHRUV AGARWAL
XI-E
SCIENCE STREAM
SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF
CHEMISTRY
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that, Mast. Dhruv Agarwal studying in

class 11-A (science stream) during the academic year 2020-

2021 has satisfactorily completed the investigatory project in

chemistry assigned to her within the given time frame.

SUBJECT TEACHER VICE PRINCIPAL

SCHOOL SEAL PRINCIPAL

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my chemistry teachers Mrs. Joy

Hepshebah for their guidance and support throughout the duration of the project. We were able

to complete the project successfully by their motivation and their extended support for us.

I would also like to thank our Correspondent Dr. R.Kishore Kumar, our Director Mrs. Deepthi

Anderson our Principal Mrs. Shanthi Samuel and Vice Principal Mrs. Ramya Uday who gave

me the golden opportunity to do this investigatory project, which helped me in doing a lot of

research and made we aware about so many new things.

I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this project

within the limited time frame.

Above all I would like to thank God Almighty, who has given me the strength and courage to do

this project efficiently.

 CONTENTS

S.NO. TITLE PAGE NUMBER

1. COVER PAGE 1

2. CERTTIFICATE 2

3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 3

4. CONTENTS 4

5. ABSTRACT 5

6. INTRODUCTION 6-7

7. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP 8-9

8. OBSERVATION 10

9. CONCLUSION 11

10. BIBLIOGRAPHY 12
 ABSTRACT
The main objective of this investigatory project is to find out the effect of environmental

pollution

The decline in environmental quality as a consequence of pollution is evidenced by loss of

vegetation, biological diversity, excessive amounts of harmful chemicals in the ambient

atmosphere and food grains, and growing risks of environmental accidents and threats to life

support systems.

Environmental pollution is one the major problems that affects biodiversity, ecosystems, and

human health worldwide by contaminating soil and water. This issue cannot be resolved through

conventional tools and traditional strategies.

In this project we shall be viewing the effect of environmental pollution on a natural pollution
indicator, lichen.

Lichens are a complex life form that is a symbiotic partnership of two separate organisms, a
fungus and an alga.
 INTRODUCTION

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that causes adverse

change. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or

light. Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or

naturally occurring contaminants.

Environmental pollution is one of the most serious problems facing humanity and other life

forms on our planet today. “Environmental pollution is defined as “the contamination of the

physical and biological components of the earth/atmosphere system to such an extent that normal

environmental processes are adversely affected.

” Pollutants can be naturally occurring substances or energies, but they are considered

contaminants when in excess of natural levels. Any use of natural resources at a rate higher than

nature’s capacity to restore itself can result in pollution of air, water, and land.

Environmental pollution is of different types namely air, water, soil, noise and light-weight.

These cause damage to the living system. How pollution interacts with public health,

environmental medicine and the environment has undergone dramatic change.

 INTRODUCTION TO LICHEN

A lichen looks like a single organism, but it is actually a symbiotic between

different organisms. It is composed of a fungal partner (mycobiont) and one or
more photosynthetic partners (photobiont). The photosynthetic partner is generally
green algae or cyanobacteria. There are about 13,500 species of lichen on the
Earth.
It is debated whether the relationship in a lichen is mutualistic or part of a
controlled parasitism. On one hand, the fungus and the photobiont seem to be in a
mutualistic relationship because when they are combined, they have the ability to
deal with ecological conditions that neither part would be able to handle on its
own. It also seems that neither partner is damaged by the other. Upon taking a
closer look at a lichen, some might say that the photobiont is a captive of the
mycobiont, not a partner. The fungal partner "enslaves" the photobiont to feed
from the photobiont’s photosynthesis.
 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

1. Data on species distribution

2. Auto-ecological information, Eg. Indicator values for individual species

3. An index expressing the species’ sensitivity to air pollution

4. sampling units and the sampling procedures.

5. Red and blue marker

6. Zone map

THEORY:

Lichens have long been recognized as sensitive indicators of environmental

conditions. In 1859, Grindson attributed the decline of lichens around city centres
to air pollution. Lichens lack a protective cuticle and stomata, direct dependence
on atmosphere for nutrients (poikilohydrous nature), longevity, stability, perennial
condition of thallus, high degree of sensitivity to changes in substrate pH and
pollutants makes them ideal organisms to study the impact of air pollution. Lichens
are good accumulators of many elements, particularly heavy metals and radio
nuclides. Lichens show their sensitivity to air pollution in various ways such as
decline in diversity, absence of sensitive species, and morphological, anatomical
and physiological changes. High sensitivity of lichens is related to their physiology
and morphology Alteration of the symbiotic balance between the partners leads to
a breakdown of the association This can come about by accumulation of toxins,
metabolic interference, or altered nutrition favoring one partner of the other.
Several studies are available on lichens in relation to air pollution and metal
deposition from different regions of the world. In India, air pollution-monitoring
using lichens are still remain at infantry stages and needs standardization specific
to locations and problems

PROCEDURE:

1. choose five zones (regions) adjacent to one another.

2. consider every part of the zones inclusive of house, trees, shops etc.

3. make the list off all the lichens along with the environment (pollution level) they located

in.

4. mark all the lichens present in the area on the map with a red marker

5. return after a Fortnite to the same zone and observe the change in colour if any.
OBSERVATION:

Effect of Pollutants on lichens……

SO 2:
By- product of fossil fuel combustion (coal or fuel oil), ore reduction, paper
manufacture, and automobile exhaust Photochemical toxins such as Ozone, NO 2,
PAN (peroxyacetyl nitrate): Combustion products, automobile exhaust (common
pollutants in “smog” and “smaze”)

Acid Rain:
SO 2 and NO 2 dissolved in both rain and snow Ability of the substrate to
“buffer” acidic conditions helps lichens survive on limestones and some basic
barks

Heavy Metals

Lead (Pb) Nickel (Ni), Mercury (Hg), Zinc (Zn), Arsenic (As),Cadmium (Cd),
Chromium (Cr) etc.

Ionizing Radiation:

137Cs and 90Sr from nuclear testing or accidents

RESULT:

Different lichens thrive under different conditions. We can see from the picture above
PRECAUTION:

Make sure that the lichens that are chosen for the experiment chosen are in the adult form.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• tnenvis.nic.in

• www.amnh.org

• biomimicrykth.blogspot.com

• www.sciencedirect.com

• Wikipidea.com

CONCLUSION:

From the experiment we can hereby successfully conclude that

environmental pollution is indeed a matter of grave concern and lichens are
an apt indication of this. Different species of lichens are able to grow in
different levels of pollution as they are habituated to it. However, Pollution
can also cause the death of the lichen algae, discoloration and reduced
growth of the lichen fungus, or kill a lichen completely. Thus this is a sign of
extreme levels of pollution which even organisms like lichens can’t tolerate.
Hence, it is of immense importance for us to regulate the pollutions level in
the environment.