Comparative study of soil properties and vegetation at various open dump and non-dumpsites in the Bengaluru city of Karnataka, India

Abstract

A comparative field studies on seven municipal dumpsites namely Agara 1 (12.917°N, 77.639°E), Agara 2 (12.922°N, 77.639°E), HSR depot (12.919°N, 77.644°E), Koraman-gala Church (12.934°N, 77.626°E), Koramanagla BDA (12.931°N, 77.625°E), Garvebhayipalya (12.897°N, 77.638°E) and Sanjay Gandhi hospital (12.891°N, 77.601° E), and its adjoining non-dump sites were conducted to understand their soil characteristic features and the vegetation pattern. Soil characteristics were presented in terms of the physicochemical parameters and the vegetation patterns were presented in terms of the dominance using the ecological parameter Important Value Index (IVI). Soils at the dump sites showed higher mean electrical conductivity and pH values as compared to the non-dump sites. Though the mineral content showed higher mean value in the dump sites (except chloride), there is no significant variation in the higher total soluble solutes between dump and non-dump sites(P>0.05) As per ANNOVA there was highly significant variation in the heavy metal content between dump and non dumpsites (P<0.01).. With respect to vegetation analysis though 50 different species found across locations only 10 species viz Alternatheria sessile, Amaranthus spinose, Caesalpinia pulcherima, Ipomea acumilanata, Ipomea evolvulus, Parthenium hysterophorous Pisum sativum, Ricinis communis, Sida rombifolia and Solanum lycopersicum were found consistent across all locations irrespective of the seasons. Among these, A. sessile, R. communis and A. spinosa were found dominant based on the IVI values across seven locations which further can be studied for their potential for phyto remediating the land pollutants such as heavy metals.