A study of air pollution with heavy metals in Thessaloniki city (Greece) using trees as biological indicators

Sawidis, Thomas; Marnasidis, A.; Zachariadis, Georgios; Stratis, J. A.

doi:10.1007/bf00213976

Cited by 99 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Respectively, Sawidis et al (1995) for the city of Thessaloniki found the following declining order of metals mean concentration manganese (Mn) > zinc (Zn) > copper (Cu) > cadmium (Cd) for the eight plant species that they have studied. Pyatt (1999) studied the heavy metals concentration in Pinus nigra needles in Cyprus.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The average annual air temperature is 15.8 °C with minimum average monthly temperature 5.9 °C (January) and maximum 25.9 °C (July). The average annual precipitation is 449.3 mm and relative humidity is 66.7% (Sawidis et al, 1995;Batala and Tsitsoni, 2007;2009).…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The sites were chosen because they are three major, heavy traffic roads of Thessaloniki according to data by Prefecture of Central Macedonia. Sawidis et al, (1995) reported that the main sources of heavy metal contamination in Thessaloniki are central heating, traffic load and road junctions. Important factor is the direction of the local winds (Vardaris) is from northwest to southwest; hence a constant increased contamination from the city industrial area which is sited at the west of the city.…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The species that analyzed were Cupressus arizonica, Albizia julibrissin, Celtis australis, Platanus orientalis and Ligustrum japonicum. The aim of the collection was to cover a good range of species (broadleaves and coniferous, deciduous and evergreen) and it was based on different leaves' morphology (needlelamina, simple-compound) (Sawidis et al, 1995) and their different silvicultural treatment (Albizia julibrissin prunned). They also were chosen because of their presence in both urban and natural ecosystems; they have a widely geographical range and ecological distribution throughout the world; in addition their sampling, identification and cultivation is easy and inexpensive (Celik et al, 2005).…”

Section: Sample Collection and Preparationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Plants not only have an ornamental function in urban areas, but they also may improve the quality of urban life (Akbari, 2002;Brack, 2002). Moreover, plants can absorb and accumulate pollutants through their roots and leaves (Sawidis et al, 1995). Heavy metals can be dry deposited on plant surfaces and accumulated through sedimentation under the influence of gravity (Nowak, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Selection of forest species for use in urban environment in relation to their potential capture to heavy metals

Samara

Tsitsoni

2014

Global NEST Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of this research is to study the behavior of different forest species in accordance with their ability to retain heavy metals on their leaves in order to select the most suitable species for urban and peri-urban use, which will contribute to the reduction of the continuously growing atmospheric pollution in the cities. Five species were studied: Cupressus arizonica, Albizia julibrissin, Platanus orientalis, Celtis australis and Ligustrum japonicum. 360 leaf samples were collected and two treatments (non-washed and washed sheets) were applied on them. The determinative estimation of the concentration of metals in the clear filtrate was carried out with the use of ICP-OES inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. In order to correlate the concentration of heavy metals in leaves with the silvicultural characteristics of species, the following characteristics were measured in 20 individuals per species: diameter at breast height, total height of tree, crown beginning height and crown's diameters. Statistically significant differences between the studied species were found for all metals. In addition, not a single species was found to retain the highest concentration of all. Metal concentration on leaves' surface in declining order was: (Mn) > (Cu) > (Zn) > (Pb) > (Cr) > (Ni) > (Cd). The factor of height is significant both in the upper and lower layer of the crown. Broadleaves' species as Albizia julibrissin with compound leaves capture significant heavy metals as conifer species.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sample Collection and Preparationmentioning

confidence: 99%