[13a-N107-1~12] 3.1 Basic optics and frontier of optics

▼ [13a-N107-11] In vivo monitoring of polystyrene microplastics effect on lentil seed germination and seedling growth using Biospeckle Optical Coherence Tomography

〇(D)sanath De silva^1,2, Uma Maheswari Rajagopalan³, Li Danyang¹, Hirofumi Kadono¹ (1.Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama Univ., Japan, 2.Dept. of Mechanical and Manufacturing, Univ. of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka, 3.Dept. Mech, Eng. Faculty of Engineering. Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan)

Keywords:Seed Germination, biospeckle optical coherence tomography (bOCT), polystyrene microplastics

The effect of microplastics on plant growth and seed germination is getting worldwide attention due to the widespread usage, mismanagement, having an unrevealed impact. Waste plastics degraded to microplastics (MPs) (diameter < 5 mm) and nanoplastics (diameter < 100 nm) by natural forces, thus widely spread in environment. Several studies reported the adverse effect of MPs on seed germination and plant growth. In general, the effect of seed germination and seedling growth from MPs are assessed by destructive post-harvesting conventional measurements that require a relatively long period of time. Hence, there is an urgent requirement for novel methods that can monitor the effect of MPs on seed germination and seedling growth at an early stage. Therefore, in this study, the effect of polystyrene microplastics (PSMPs) on lentil (Lens culinaris) seed germination and seedling growth was monitored using ultrahigh accurate Biospeckle Optical Coherence Tomography (bOCT), introduced by our team. OCT is a non-contact, non-destructive, in vivo monitoring technique to visualize the change of internal activity of a biological object.