Air pollution assessment based on elemental concentration of leaves tissue and foliage dust along an urbanization gradient in Vienna

Simon, Edina and Braun, Mihály and Vidic, Andreas and Bogyó, Dávid and Fábián, István and Tóthmérész, Béla (2011) Air pollution assessment based on elemental concentration of leaves tissue and foliage dust along an urbanization gradient in Vienna. Environmental Pollution, 159. pp. 1229-1233. ISSN 0269-7491

Text Simon_et_alENPO5964_2011.pdf Restricted to Registered users only Download (357kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

Foliage dust contains heavy metal that may have harmful effects on human health. The elemental contents of tree leaves and foliage dust are especially useful to assess air environmental pollution. We studied the elemental concentrations in foliage dust and leaves of Acer pseudoplatanus along an urbanization gradient in Vienna, Austria. Samples were collected from urban, suburban and rural areas. We analysed 19 elements in both kind of samples: aluminium, barium, calcium, copper, iron, potassium, magnesium, sodium, phosphor, sulphur, strontium and zinc. We found that the elemental concentrations of foliage dust were significantly higher in the urban area than in the rural area for aluminium, barium, iron, lead, phosphor and selenium. Elemental concentrations of leaves were significantly higher in urban than in rural area for manganese and strontium. Urbanization changed significantly the elemental concentrations of foliage dust and leaves and the applied method can be useful for monitoring the environmental load.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item