Department of Environmental Sciences, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, 835222, India.
Department of Botany, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2024 Sep;31(42):54962-54978. doi: 10.1007/s11356-024-34802-9. Epub 2024 Sep 2.
The current study evaluated the effects of air pollution on selected street trees in the National Capital Territory during the pre- and post-monsoon seasons to identify the optimally suitable tree for green belt development in Delhi. The identification was performed by measuring the air pollution tolerance index (APTI), anticipated performance index (API), dust-capturing capacity (DCC) and proline content on the trees. The APTI of street trees of Delhi varied significantly among different tree species (F = 47.18, p < 0.05), experimental sites (F = 6.65, p < 0.001) and between seasons (F = 16.51, p < 0.001), emphasizing the relationships between trees and other types of variables such as the climate and level of pollution, among other factors. This variability emphasizes the need to choose trees to use for urban greening in the improvement of air quality in different environments within cities. Ascorbic acid (AA) concentration and relative water content (RWC) had a strong influence on APTI with an extremely significant moderate positive correlation between AA concentration and APTI (r = 0.65, p < 0.001) along with RWC and APTI (r = 0.52, p < 0.001), indicating that higher levels of AA concentration and RWC are linked to increased air pollution tolerance. The PCA bi-plot indicates AA has poor positive loading coefficients with PC1 explaining 29.49% of the total variance in the dataset. The highest APTI was recorded in Azadirachta indica (22.01), Leucaena leucocephala (20.65), Morus alba (20.62), Ficus religiosa (20.61) and Ficus benghalensis (19.61), irrespective of sites and seasons. Similarly, based on API grading, F. religiosa and F. benghalensis were identified as excellent API grade 6 (81-90%), A. indica and Alstonia scholaris as very good API grade 5 (71-80%), M. alba, Pongamia pinnata and Monoon longifolium as good API grade 4 (61-70%) and Plumeria alba as moderate API grade 3 (51-60%) in different streets of Delhi. As these plants are indigenous to the region and hold significant socio-economic and aesthetic significance in Indian societies, they are advisable for avenue plantations as part of various government initiatives to support environmental sustainability.
本研究评估了空气污染对首都领地选定街道树木在季风前和后季节的影响，以确定最适合德里绿化带发展的树木。通过测量树木的空气污染耐受指数（APTI）、预期表现指数（API）、捕尘能力（DCC）和脯氨酸含量来进行鉴定。德里街道树木的 APTI 在不同树种之间（F=47.18，p<0.05）、实验地点之间（F=6.65，p<0.001）和季节之间（F=16.51，p<0.001）存在显著差异，强调了树木与气候和污染水平等其他因素之间的关系。这种变异性强调了在不同环境中选择树木用于城市绿化以改善城市空气质量的必要性。抗坏血酸（AA）浓度和相对水含量（RWC）对 APTI 有很强的影响，AA 浓度与 APTI 之间存在极强的显著正相关（r=0.65，p<0.001），以及 RWC 与 APTI（r=0.52，p<0.001）之间的相关性，表明 AA 浓度和 RWC 较高与空气污染耐受能力增强有关。PCA 双标图表明 AA 与 PC1 的正负荷系数较差，PC1 解释了数据集总方差的 29.49%。在所有地点和季节中，APTI 最高的记录是印度楝（22.01）、银荆（20.65）、白桑（20.62）、菩提树（20.61）和印度榕（19.61）。同样，根据 API 分级，菩提和印度榕被鉴定为优秀的 API 等级 6（81-90%），印度楝和垂榕为非常好的 API 等级 5（71-80%），白桑、印茄和麻疯树为良好的 API 等级 4（61-70%），而白兰花为中等的 API 等级 3（51-60%），这些植物是该地区的本土植物，在印度社会中具有重要的社会经济和美学意义，因此建议将它们作为各种政府支持环境可持续性倡议的林荫大道种植的一部分。
