ABSTRACT
Bioindication is a method for the assessment of the effects of hazardous substances on plants. The information on the phytotoxicity of hazardous substances can be obtained using appropriate test objects, for example, seeds and seedlings of plants and other. As a result, various test parameters are defined under the influence of selected toxicants (dynamics of seed germination, percentage of germination, length of the main and lateral roots, height of the shoot, etc.). In this case, the pesticides imported in Ukraine can be assessed. The experiments on the influence of various technogenic substrates on plant objects under controlled conditions allow solving a considerable range of problems. These include establishing the causes of different plant resistances and tendency of adapting to toxicants, detecting the influence of specific environmental factors while excluding the effect of other factors, defining the lethal dose of the pollutant, etc. In this chapter, the phytotoxic effect of pesticides was analyzed. The method is based on seed germination of model plant species on different substrates. Wheat, barley, and corn seeds were selected for analysis. The pollutants used were the three most widely used types of pesticides: acetochlor (more than 4,000 tons imported into Ukraine in 2018) and glyphosphate (about 3,000 tons). The main criteria for the selection of these pesticides are as follows: quantity imported and used in Ukraine, cost availability, as well as the effectiveness of their use. This study shows a direct relationship between the inhibition of the morphometric parameters of the investigated plants and the introduced pesticide. The greater the phytotoxic effect on the test object, the smaller the length of the germinated roots and the greater the level of inhibited plant development.
