Abstract: |
In recent years, environmental pollution has intensified, raising concerns about the health impacts on humans and plants. In this study, we evaluate the indicator plants that can indicate environmental conditions by Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) which can make tomographic images quantitatively and non-invasively observation. Trifolium repens, commonly known as white clover, which is prevalent in Japan, serves as an indicator plant for ozone, suggesting that OCT measurements of Trifolium repens enabled the estimation of ozone concentration. However, to evaluate whether the changes observed inside leaves are specific to ozone, it is necessary to also differentiate other environmental stresses. In this study, we compared the OCT measurement results of Trifolium repens grown under ozone stress and water stress. The analysis focused on variations in tissue thickness, interference light intensity, and texture of the OCT images, while also considering the stability of the analytical parameters. Differences were observed in the trends of changes in palisade tissue thickness and interference light intensity under ozone stress and water stress. Although variations under those stresses were observed in the results of texture analysis, these were not as significant as those in thickness and intensity. This result indicates that plants induce specific changes within their leaves due to different stresses, confirming the potential of OCT measurements for environmental assessments. |