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. 2023 Mar;45(3):843-859.
doi: 10.1007/s10653-022-01252-6. Epub 2022 Mar 25.

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

Fabrizio Monaci  1 , Stefania Ancora  2 , Luca Paoli  3 , Stefano Loppi  4 , Jürgen Franzaring  5
Affiliations

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

Fabrizio Monaci et al. Environ Geochem Health. 2023 Mar.

Erratum in

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Geothermal; Post-mining; Potentially toxic elements; Quercus ilex; Tree leaves; Urban.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Concentrations (median, 1st and 3rd quartile, min–max; mg/kg, DM) of PTEs in washed and unwashed 6, 12, 24 month-old Q. ilex leaves from urban areas of the Mt. Amiata. Different letters indicate statistical differences (p < 0.01) among age groups (Scheffé test on normalized data); asterisks indicate differences (p < 0.01) between washed/unwashed groups of the same age
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Concentrations (median, 1st and 3rd quartile, min–max; mg/kg or g/kg, DM) of macronutrients in washed and unwashed 6, 12, 24 month-old Q. ilex leaves from urban areas of Mt. Amiata. No statistically significant differences (p < 0.01) were found among leaf-age groups of washed and unwashed leaves and between washed/unwashed leaves of the same groups
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Left: correlation matrix of PTEs in unwashed and washed (below, dotted line) Q. ilex leaves. Right: correlation matrix of macronutrients in unwashed (above the diagonal) and washed (below) Q. ilex leaves. The asterisk indicates statistically significant correlations (p < 0.01)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Discriminant analysis of PTEs concentrations in unwashed Q. ilex leaves from five urban settlements of the Mt. Amiata (Abb, Arc, Bag, Pia, San)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Box and whisker plots of Ba (left) and Hg (right) concentrations (mg/kg, DM; n = 39) in unwashed Q. ilex leaves of five urban settlements (Abb, Arc, Bag, Pia, San) of the Mt. Amiata
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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