Abstract
Plants can be effectively used as bio-monitors of environmental pollution. However, how the particulate matter (PM) and heavy metal retention ability of plants changes in different areas with human disturbance along with monsoon has not yet been investigated in urban ecosystems. In this study, we measured the amount of PM and heavy metals such as Ni, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn accumulated by the leaves of Euonymus japonicus during the East Asian monsoon from different functional units in Beijing, China. A rinse-and-weigh method developed in our laboratory was used to determine the mass of the PM, and electro-thermal atomic absorption spectrometry was used for heavy metal analysis. We found that the types of functional units had little influence, whereas the monsoon had a significant effect on the deposition of PM: northwest areas during the monsoon had the lowest effect (with 0.005, 0.453, 0.643, and 1.569 g/m2 fine, coarse, large, and total PM, respectively), and the southeast areas during the monsoon had the highest effect (0.015, 2.687, 1.941, and 4.228 g/m2 for fine, coarse, large, and total PM, respectively). Notable, we found considerable variations in heavy metal accumulation across the functional units analyzed, that is, the accumulation level was higher in communities than in parks (P < 0.0001 for all heavy metals). Moreover, a positive relationship was found between PM retention and heavy metal accumulation by the leaves of E. japonicus. Taken together, our results suggested that the PM and heavy metal retention ability of E. japonicus was sensitive to human disturbance and monsoon in Beijing. Since E. japonicus is a widely distributed tree and has the ability of to purify the atmosphere, it is an ideal plant for mitigating urban environmental pollution.
Highlights
In China, rapid economic development has been accompanied by serious environmental issues
To investigate whether the particulate matter (PM) and heavy metal retention ability of plants changed in different human-disturbance areas along monsoon directions in Beijing, we used rinse-and-weigh method and electro-thermal atomic absorption spectrometry to measure the amount of PM and heavy metals such as Ni, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn accumulated by the leaves of E. japonicus
Our results revealed that the types of functional units were found to exert little influence on the capture of PM, whereas monsoon had a significant effect, showing an increasing trend from the northwest to southeast (0.005, 0.453, 0.643, and 1.569 g/m2 for fine, coarse, large, and total PM, respectively, to 0.015, 2.687, 1.941, and 1.569 g/m2, for fine, coarse, large, and total PM, respectively)
Summary
In China, rapid economic development has been accompanied by serious environmental issues. Atmospheric pollution has attracted considerable attention; particulate matter (PM) in addition to heavy metals and other harmful components have been shown to have serious impact on human health [3]. The increasing population has led to an increased number of vehicles and industrial activities, which frequently cause heavy air pollution, appearing as haze weather and mainly consisting of fine PM, and adversely affect public health [6,7,8]. The atmospheric source apportionment of PM of less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) revealed that its main sources in Beijing are coal combustion, vehicle exhaust, industrial emission, and dust pollution [10,11]. In addition to human activities and unique topography, the variation of fog and haze days is highly correlated with meteorological factors such as temperature and precipitation [12,13]. Studies on anthropogenic factors and environmental factors are still insufficient, especially on PM and heavy metals
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