Boluda, H. R. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2024

Assessment of the level of pollution based on soil and Tilia europaea leaves

Anthropic activities related to urbanization release pollutants, including potentially toxic elements, into the atmosphere and these are eventually deposited in soils, water, infrastructures, vegetation. Urban soil and plant leaves are widely used as ecological indicators to assess the effect of urbanization. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of urbanization based on the elemental concentration of soil and leaves of Tilia x europaea from urban, suburban, and rural areas along an urbanization gradient in Debrecen, Hungary. Using the ICP-OES technique, we measured the concentration of Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Sr, and Zn and based on the measured concentration, bioaccumulation factor (BAF) was calculated. The highest concentration of all elements was found in soil samples from urban areas, with an increasing tendency along the urbanization gradient. A significant difference was found along the urbanization gradient only for Cr based on the plant leaves. T. x europaea showed bioaccumulation capacity for Cr and Sr. Our results suggest that urbanization has a remarkable effect on the elemental concentration of soil, which is a perfect ecological indicator. At the same time, we concluded that the T. x europaea was not sensitive enough to indicate the effect of urbanization.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Effect of urbanization on the city pollution based on soil and tree leaves in Valencia, Spain

The accumulation of the toxic metals can result in the degradation of neighboring ecosystems and reducing their value to humans in terms of aesthetic properties and utility. Therefore, the aim of our research was to investigate the effect of urbanization on metal levels in soil samples and Citrus sp. tree leaves along an urbanization (rural, periurban and urban) in Valencia (Spain). There were significant differences for the content of clay, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), soil organic matter (SOM), concentration of Ca and exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP). A significant difference was not found in the case of elemental concentration of soil. There were significant differences for the concentration of Cu on Citrus sp. leaves, only. Based on our findings Valencia did not exhibit a significant relationship between the element concentrations and the urban gradient except for the case of copper in the leaf samples. The find no difference in the soil indicate the homogenous nature of the Valencia soil .

ecology↗