Ecological Enumeration of Tree Vegetation and Their Contribution in Removal of Atmospheric Pollution Load: A Case Study in an Industrial Complex of Western Orissa, India
The study involves a detailed ecological and taxonomic enumeration of tree vegetation in and around the thermal power station (ITPS) at Banharpali, Jharsuguda district of Orissa. Information on phyto-sociological characters were used to calculate species frequency, density, girth size, canopy coverage and Importance Value Index (IVI), dominance and evenness indices. Presence of 37 native and 17 ornamental tree species besides planted trees were recorded. Species richness varied from 1 to 22, expected maximum diversity (Hmax) from 1.099 to 3.091, observed diversity from 0.877 to 2.708, gap in diversity from 3% to 44%, The dominance index (Cd) from 0.082 to 0.516 and evenness index (E¢) from 0.7 to 0.8. The canopy density of different sites varied from 5% to 252% with a total canopy area from 1,838,472 to 2,639,010 m2 . From the coal combustion data, it was estimated that the ITPS annually releases 2.22 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into atmosphere and vegetation in ITPS complex was able to sequester 4.6%–6.7% of the emitted CO2. Annual dust emission by ITPS power plant was estimated to be 3318 tonnes. Vegetation inside ITPS complex was able to collect only 6.13%–8.8% (203–291 tonnes/year) of the emitted dust. However, if vegetational leaf area of surrounding forest around ITPS campus is taken into consideration, total annual dust collection figure amounts to 2413 (71%) to 4711 tonnes (>100%).
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