Abstract
We conducted a study of the leaf-deposited particles and magnetism of plant leaves in different functional areas (traffic areas, parks, and residential areas) in Lanzhou, China. The saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM) of the washed and unwashed leaves of 23 plant species (including evergreen shrubs, deciduous shrubs, deciduous liana species, and deciduous trees) at three sampling heights (0.5 m, 1.5 m, and 2.5 m) was measured. In addition, the mass of the leaf-deposited particles was measured using the elution-filtration method and the leaf morphological characteristics were determined by scanning electronic microscope (SEM) analysis. The results revealed significant differences in particle retention capacity among the 23 plant species, with evergreen shrub species at the heights of 0.5 m and 1.5 m having higher particle concentrations. Buxus sinica, Buxus megistophylla, Prunus cerasifera, and Ligustrum×vicaryi were the most effective plant species for accumulating particles. The SEM results showed that leaves with a relatively complex adaxial surface (such as deep grooves and protrusions) were more effective at accumulating particles. The SIRM of washed leaves, unwashed leaves, and leaf-deposited particles were significantly higher in traffic areas than in parks and residential areas. In addition, significant correlations were found between SIRM of unwashed leaves and leaf-deposited particles and the mass of leaf-deposited particles, and therefore the leaf magnetic properties effectively reflect levels of PM pollution under different environmental conditions. Overall, our results provide a valuable reference for the selection of plant species with high particle retention capacity that is suitable for urban greening and pollution mitigation.
Highlights
Human health and well-being are closely related to the quality of the urban environment
Within plant type 1.5 m-Shrubs-D, the mass of leaf-deposited particles decreases in the sequence of Syzygium aromaticum > Amygdalus triloba > Amygdalus persica > Lonicera maackii; there are no significant differences in mass of leaf-deposited particles among the four species
The SIRMw of 0.5 m-Shrub-E type is significantly higher than 0.5 m-Shrubs-D type (p < 0.0001), 1.5 m-Shrubs-D and 1.5 m-trees-D (p < 0.05).The variation in the saturation isothermal remanence (SIRM) of leaf-deposited particles (SIRMu−w) among the seven plant types are consistent with the results for SIRM values of the unwashed leaves (SIRMu)
Summary
Human health and well-being are closely related to the quality of the urban environment. The benefits of vegetation have been demonstrated studies using model simulations (Gromke and Ruck, 2009; Selmi et al, 2016), wind tunnels (Gromke and Ruck, 2009; Wang et al, 2019) and field experiments (He et al, 2020; Shao et al, 2019; Yan et al, 2019) Urban green infrastructure, such as hedges, both in closed and open-road environments, significantly reduces pollutants such as particulate matter (Al-Dabbous and Kumar, 2014), black carbon (Abhijith and Kumar, 2019), and trace metals (Abhijith and Kumar, 2019). Several studies have shown that trees in street canyons may cause a deterioration in air quality by reducing ventilation (Morakinyo et al, 2016; Yli-Pelkonen et al, 2017), appropriate urban greening vegetation can overall improve the urban environment
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