Not Only Trees Matter—Traffic-Related PM Accumulation by Vegetation of Urban Forests

Robert Popek, Beata Fornal-Pieniak, Filip Chyliński, Magdalena Pawełkowicz, Jan Bobrowicz, Dominika Chrzanowska, Natalia Piechota and Arkadiusz Przybysz
Additional contact information
Robert Popek: Section of Basic Research in Horticulture, Department of Plant Protection, Institute of Horticultural Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, Nowoursynowska Street 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
Beata Fornal-Pieniak: Department of Environmental Protection and Dendrology, Institute of Horticultural Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, Nowoursynowska Street 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
Filip Chyliński: Instytut Techniki Budowlanej, Filtrowa Street 1, 00-611 Warsaw, Poland
Magdalena Pawełkowicz: Department of Plant Genetics, Breeding and Biotechnology, Institute of Biology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, Nowoursynowska Street 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
Jan Bobrowicz: Instytut Techniki Budowlanej, Filtrowa Street 1, 00-611 Warsaw, Poland
Dominika Chrzanowska: Section of Basic Research in Horticulture, Department of Plant Protection, Institute of Horticultural Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, Nowoursynowska Street 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
Natalia Piechota: Section of Basic Research in Horticulture, Department of Plant Protection, Institute of Horticultural Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, Nowoursynowska Street 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
Arkadiusz Przybysz: Section of Basic Research in Horticulture, Department of Plant Protection, Institute of Horticultural Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, Nowoursynowska Street 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 5, 1-18

Abstract: In terms of the process of air purification, a lot of attention has been devoted to trees and shrubs. Little attention has been paid to herbaceous vegetation from the lower forest layers. Urban forests are often located on the outskirts of cities and surround exit roads where there is heavy traffic, generating particulate matter (PM) pollution. The aim of this study was to investigate the spread of PM from the road traffic in the air and to investigate how individual layers of urban forests accumulate PM. We conducted comparative analyses of PM accumulation on plants in five zones away from the road, into the forest, in the air, and in four vegetation layers: mosses, herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees. The results show that all forest layers accumulate PM. We show that PM is very efficiently accumulated by herbaceous plants growing along roadsides, and that the PM that was not deposited on herbaceous plants was accumulated by trees and shrubs. With increasing distance from the road into the forest, the PM content on herbaceous plants decreased and the accumulation on trees and shrubs increased. We estimated that PM concentration in the air dropped significantly in the front line of the trees, but it was still detectable up to 50 m into the forest. The results presented herein show that meadow vegetation and urban forests play a very important role in air purification. Our results provide a better understanding of the complexity of urban forest interactions and provide the basis for better planning of urban greenery.

Keywords: air pollution; particulate matter; herbaceous plants; mosses; shrubs; trees (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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