Oxidative Response of Wetland Macrophytes in Response to Contaminants of Abiotic Components of East Kolkata Wetland Ecosystem

The tannery effluent and composite municipal sewage water drained to the East Kolkata wetland (EKW), a Ramsar Site (1208), is used for agriculture and pisciculture after natural stabilization. Such composite wastewater is characterized by exceedingly high total dissolved solids, total hardness, chloride and heavy metals concentrations. These water born pollutants generate reactive oxygen species which are potentially toxic to the biological system. These reactive oxygen species are normally detoxified by some enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT). The present study was commenced to find out the SOD and CAT activities against the oxidative stress, if any, in four macrophytes namely, Eichhornia crassipes, Pistia stratiotes, Alternanthera sessilis and Sagittarria montevidensis of contaminated ponds (Site 1 and Site 2) of EKW and an uncontaminated site (Control site). During the course of sampling the physico-chemical factors were found significantly higher in the EKW ponds compared to the control site. In the EKW sites, higher rate of evaporation during summer months caused higher elemental concentration in the premonsoon than in other seasons. This led to high activity of both SOD and CAT enzymes. In contrast, heavy rain fall in monsoon lowers the elemental concentration–mainly due to dilution effect. Present experiment indicated that in a stressed ecosystem like EKW, the wetland plants overcome the stress by altering their stress enzyme activities, hence suggesting an evidence of adaptive mechanism to thrive in a stressful environment.