STUDY INTO THE FEASIBILITY OF BIOINDICATION OF AGROECOSYSTEMS BY PLANTS WITH SPIRAL PHYLLOTAXIS
An important task of biomonitoring is to determine the environmental quality, with the developmental stability of plants in the agroecosystem as a potential indicator. Being sensitive bio-indicators, the plants allow estimating the state of the agroecosystem as a whole with regard to the target-cultivated crops. A numerical measure of developmental stability is the value of fluctuating asymmetry. From the analytical review, researchers apply the fluctuating asymmetry method to investigate the developmental stability of a wide range of plant species. According to this method, they select a bilateral structure from the plant organs or their parts separated in space, with their geometric symmetry suggesting that the values of the measured bilateral traits are equal. In this study, we took the second pair of true pepper leaves at the age of 30 days after emergence as a bilateral structure. The arrangement of leaves was in spiral phyllotaxis close to the opposite. The bilateral traits were the leaf length, width, and chlorophyll content. The study regarded four samplings of plants: with right and left isomerism, with or without stress. The study found that the direction of asymmetry was not in place only in the leaf width of plants with a right-handed spiral. The study revealed the size-dependence of some features and the antisymmetry for the chlorophyll content trait. All traits significantly correlated with each other. Differences in the average values of the calculated fluctuating asymmetry were statistically significant only for isomers in terms of the leaf chlorophyll content. The study confirmed the need for careful selection of the bilateral structure. Pairs of leaves that are in phyllotaxis, even almost opposite, are formed quite different, and their use in bioindication can be difficult.