Abstract
The fluctuating asymmetry (FA) in Betula pendula Roth was estimated as an integrated measure of five morphometric characteristics of a lamina. Samples were collected in seven cities that differ both in climatic conditions, moderately to sharply continental. In total, 33 ecotopes were distinguished with various level of anthropogenic load. The statistical data processing involved correlation, one-way and factorial ANOVA, regression analyses, and principal component analysis (PCA). The impact of 25 climatic and anthropogenic factors on the FA value was considered. In most urban ecotopes, the integrated fluctuating asymmetry (IFA) value was higher than in natural biotopes of the same region. No significant inter-annual differences in IFA values were found. FA dependence on traffic load is noted to be statistically significant. The covariation analysis of IFA, climatic, and anthropogenic variables in various urban ecotopes revealed the impact of three groups of factors that together explain 93% of the variance in environmental parameters. The complex analysis clearly arranged the studied ecotopes by pollution gradient and climatic patterns. The primary effect of the total anthropogenic load on the developmental stability of B. pendula results in an IFA increase. IFA can play a key role in bioindication assessment of environmental quality. The climatic factors have no significant effect on the developmental stability of B. pendula in urban conditions.
Highlights
Trees in urban landscapes play an important role in shaping and safeguarding the local environment due to their production of oxygen and phytoncides, air ionization, shaping the microclimate, and catching pollutant particles
The fluctuating asymmetry (FA) in Betula pendula Roth was estimated as an integrated measure of five morphometric characteristics of a lamina
For the seven studied cities, most of the climatic variables showed a significant correlation with geographical longitude, while only the cold period precipitations are correlated with geographical latitude (Table A3)
Summary
Trees in urban landscapes play an important role in shaping and safeguarding the local environment due to their production of oxygen and phytoncides, air ionization, shaping the microclimate, and catching pollutant particles. The use of fill soil and construction waste deteriorates the soil quality in cities, which is aggravated by the lack of nutrients and a decrease in the activity of geobiotic and herpetobiotic organisms. This leads to worse nutrition conditions for plants. Being aware of the complexity of problems facing the living organisms in the urban environment and taking into account the multiplicity of their effects, we must ask ourselves the question of whether it is possible to reduce the whole complex of the negative factors to a common denominator that provides an idea not of the content of individual pollutants but of the condition of an organism and ecosystem as a whole. We believe that for trees, one of the advisable methods is an assessment of disturbances in developmental stability by the level of fluctuating asymmetry of the leaf
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