Urban Trees as biomonitor of air particulate pollutants

The present work deals with the study of particulate matter air pollutants at sites with different pollution load at Sohag governorate-Egypt. Of these pollutants, heavy metal from different sources were monitored using urban tree namely Ficus nitida (Moraceae). The leaf and soil samples were collected from the studied sites in addition to background site along four consecutive seasons. The content of the heavy metal in the dust full, leaf tissue of F. nitida and within the soil samples has been determined. For detection the source of incorporated metals which responsible for the different deteriorations in plant tissue, the relation between incorporated metals and leaf deposit from hand, and soil metals from another hand has been discussed. On the other hand, our work is undertaken to assess to what extent heavy metal content affects the morphological and structural features of Ficus nitida leaves. In addition to following up the response of some growth parameters and antioxidant enzymes of the urban tree to heavy metal air pollution and evaluating the feasibility of using this species as biomonitor of air particulate pollutants under the extreme arid conditions of Egypt.

Autorentext

Dr. Naglaa Fathy Afifi Youssef is a lecturer at the Medical-Surgical Nursing department, Faculty of Nursing, Cairo University. In 2009, Dr. Youssef was a winner of a competitive scholarship from the Ministry of Higher Education in Egypt to study her PhD. From 2009 till 2013 she studied her PhD in Scotland, UK.