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Air quality in post-mining towns: tracking potentially toxic elements using tree leaves

In this study, leaves of the evergreen holm oak Quercus ilex were used to assess airborne contamination of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) at five towns located on the slopes of the Mt. Amiata (central Italy), an area with a long history of mining and, more recently, an important district for the...

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Autores principales: Monaci, Fabrizio, Ancora, Stefania, Paoli, Luca, Loppi, Stefano, Franzaring, Jürgen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10014763/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35338402
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01252-6
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author Monaci, Fabrizio
Ancora, Stefania
Paoli, Luca
Loppi, Stefano
Franzaring, Jürgen
author_facet Monaci, Fabrizio
Ancora, Stefania
Paoli, Luca
Loppi, Stefano
Franzaring, Jürgen
author_sort Monaci, Fabrizio
collection PubMed
description In this study, leaves of the evergreen holm oak Quercus ilex were used to assess airborne contamination of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) at five towns located on the slopes of the Mt. Amiata (central Italy), an area with a long history of mining and, more recently, an important district for the industrial exploitation of geothermal energy. PTE composition and covariance of washed and unwashed Q. ilex leaves of three different ages (6, 12 and 24 month-old) were used to identify atmospheric inputs of PTEs at residential areas, evaluate long-term adsorption and retention of PTEs by the leaves, thus providing an indication of potential human exposure. Moreover, the determination of foliar concentrations of major elements (C, N, S and P) allowed an assessment of the nutritional status of the investigated urban tree stands which excluded the existence of stress condition caused by air pollution or other disturbances. Results indicated that overall Pb, Cu, and Cd concentration were low in the investigated urban sites, if compared with similar studies conducted in larger Italian cities, denoting a low contribution of vehicular traffic to the atmospheric pathway. The five urban settlements were characterized by a specific profile of elements (Al, Ba, Hg and Sb) enriched in unwashed leaves, resulting from the distinct geochemical characteristics of the area and from diffuse (i.e., urban activity) and point sources of PTEs emission (i.e., brownfields, geothermal power plants). The latter sources primarily govern the distribution of Hg, whose contamination was found to be very localized close to a major abandoned mining area. Our data provided quantitative evidence of the spectrum of PTEs potentially impacting resident population and may prove useful in support of follow-up instrumental monitoring campaigns of air quality, as well as for human health and ecological risk assessments. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text]
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spelling pubmed-100147632023-03-16 Air quality in post-mining towns: tracking potentially toxic elements using tree leaves Monaci, Fabrizio Ancora, Stefania Paoli, Luca Loppi, Stefano Franzaring, Jürgen Environ Geochem Health Original Paper In this study, leaves of the evergreen holm oak Quercus ilex were used to assess airborne contamination of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) at five towns located on the slopes of the Mt. Amiata (central Italy), an area with a long history of mining and, more recently, an important district for the industrial exploitation of geothermal energy. PTE composition and covariance of washed and unwashed Q. ilex leaves of three different ages (6, 12 and 24 month-old) were used to identify atmospheric inputs of PTEs at residential areas, evaluate long-term adsorption and retention of PTEs by the leaves, thus providing an indication of potential human exposure. Moreover, the determination of foliar concentrations of major elements (C, N, S and P) allowed an assessment of the nutritional status of the investigated urban tree stands which excluded the existence of stress condition caused by air pollution or other disturbances. Results indicated that overall Pb, Cu, and Cd concentration were low in the investigated urban sites, if compared with similar studies conducted in larger Italian cities, denoting a low contribution of vehicular traffic to the atmospheric pathway. The five urban settlements were characterized by a specific profile of elements (Al, Ba, Hg and Sb) enriched in unwashed leaves, resulting from the distinct geochemical characteristics of the area and from diffuse (i.e., urban activity) and point sources of PTEs emission (i.e., brownfields, geothermal power plants). The latter sources primarily govern the distribution of Hg, whose contamination was found to be very localized close to a major abandoned mining area. Our data provided quantitative evidence of the spectrum of PTEs potentially impacting resident population and may prove useful in support of follow-up instrumental monitoring campaigns of air quality, as well as for human health and ecological risk assessments. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] Springer Netherlands 2022-03-25 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC10014763/ /pubmed/35338402 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01252-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2022, corrected publication 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Paper
Monaci, Fabrizio
Ancora, Stefania
Paoli, Luca
Loppi, Stefano
Franzaring, Jürgen
Air quality in post-mining towns: tracking potentially toxic elements using tree leaves
title Air quality in post-mining towns: tracking potentially toxic elements using tree leaves
title_full Air quality in post-mining towns: tracking potentially toxic elements using tree leaves
title_fullStr Air quality in post-mining towns: tracking potentially toxic elements using tree leaves
title_full_unstemmed Air quality in post-mining towns: tracking potentially toxic elements using tree leaves
title_short Air quality in post-mining towns: tracking potentially toxic elements using tree leaves
title_sort air quality in post-mining towns: tracking potentially toxic elements using tree leaves
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10014763/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35338402
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01252-6
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