Re: Does smoke have any effect on plantlife?

Examining the effect of cigarette smoke on plant growth is a common experiment 
as the references indicate.

What you propose is a bit different than that but you could try it and see if 
the smoke dissipated faster without plants than with them. For the control, you 
should put the same amount of soil as in the terrarium with the plants to make 
sure the soil is not absorbing the smoke. It may be hard for you to tell 
visually when the smoke has dissipated . 

There has been some research suggesting that house plants can absorb air 
pollutants. However, they did not work with smoke. The work with indoor air 
pollutants being absorbed by plants seems likely to be exagerated because they 
worked with small sealed chambers where the stomata would be open wider than 
normal due to lack of carbon dioxide. Plus they did not consider the effect of 
soil in absorbing air pollutants, nor the normal gas exchange rates in houses 
that would probably reduce the pollutant level more than plants.

There has been a lot of research on the effect of smoke on improving seed 
germination. That would be an easier effect to see because you could count the 
differences in seed germination percentage.

Smoke often contains ethylene which can cause plants to drop leaves, cause 
epinasty, a dwonward curvature of leaves, promote flowering in pineapple, and 
ripen harvested fruits. The ancient Chinese supposedly burned incense in rooms 
with harvested fruit to speed ripening. Pineapple growers used to make smokey 
fires near the fields to promote flowering. In seedlings, ethylene reduces the 
elongation rate, causes lateral swelling and causes horizontal, as opposed to 
normal vertical, growth.

Smoke could also contain sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that are air 
pollutants that can damage plants. The invisible carbon dioxide in smoke could 
be beneficial to the plant because it is used on photosynthesis. The 
particulates in smoke could coat leaves and reduce light absorption.


References


The Smokey Situation


Project Title: What is the Effect of Plants on the Amount of Second-Hand Smoke 
in the Air?


Air Pollution


SMOKING SEED — A POTENT TOOL


Green Plants and Clean Indoor Air

Taiz, L. and Zeiger, E. 1991. Plant Physiology. New York: Benjamin Cummings.