Morpho-Physio-Biochemical Attributes of Roadside Trees as Potential Tools for Biomonitoring of Air Quality and Environmental Health in Urban Areas

Abstract

Environmental pollution is an important issue in metropolitan areas, and roadside trees are directly affected by various sources of pollution to which they exhibit numerous responses. The aim of the present study was to identify morpho-physio-biochemical attributes of maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba L.) and American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis L.) growing under two different air quality conditions (roadside with high air pollution, RH and roadside with low air pollution, RL) and to assess the possibility of using their physiological and biochemical parameters as biomonitoring tools in urban areas. The results showed that the photosynthetic rate, photosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiencies, and photochromic contents were generally low in RH in both G. biloba and P. occidentalis. However, water-use efficiency and leaf temperature showed high values in RH trees. Among biochemical parameters, in G. biloba, the lipid peroxide content was higher in RH than in RL trees, but in P. occidentalis, this content was lower in RH than in RL trees. In both species, physiological activities were low in trees planted in areas with high levels of air pollution, whereas their biochemical and morphological variables showed different responses to air pollution. Thus, we concluded that it is possible to determine species-specific physiological variables affected by regional differences of air pollution in urban areas, and these findings may be helpful for monitoring air quality and environmental health using trees.

Moderate to Elevated Atmospheric CO2 During the Early Paleocene Recorded by Platanites Leaves of the San Juan Basin, New Mexico

“…Our physiology measurements of P. occidentalis ( A 0 = 12.2 μmol CO 2 m −2 s −1 ; g c (op) = 0.16 mol CO 2 m −2 s −1 ; ζ = 0.08; ci/ca 0 = 0.74) and P. × acerifolia ( A 0 = 13.2 μmol CO 2 m −2 s −1 ; g c (op) = 0.13 mol CO 2 m −2 s −1 ; ζ = 0.07; ci/ca 0 = 0.67) are consistent with other published values for A 0 and g c (op) for P. occidentalis (Xiong & Flexas, 2020; You et al., 2021), providing confidence in using these values for estimating paleo‐CO 2 . For our fossil reconstructions, we chose to use the physiology input parameters of P. occidentalis due to the better prediction of present‐day CO 2 compared to P. × acerifolia (Figure 4; Table 3).…”

Morphometric characters of Platanus × acerifolia (Aiton) Willd. leaves under the heterogeneous urban environments in the Republic of Srpska

“…Many researchers provided data that indicate the negative impact of increased concentration of toxic pollutants in urban air on morphological and anatomical characteristics of leaf blades of different trees in industrial and urban conditions: Salix alba (Wuytack et al, 2010); Aesculus hippocastanum, Castanea sativa and Cydonia oblonga (Kurteva & Dimitrova, 2014); Azadirachta indica, Cassia fistula, Ficus religiosa and Ficus virens (Chaudhary & Rathore, 2016); Tilia cordata and Tilia platyphyllos (Janjić & Maksimović, 2018); Platanus × acerifolia, Celtis occidentalis, Tilia argentea. and Quercus robur (Greksa et al, 2019); Ginkgo biloba and Platanus occidentalis (You et al, 2021); Ligustrum lucidum (Zhao et al, 2021).…”