Authors: Héctor GarcíaGómez Laura Aguillaume Sheila IzquietaRojano Fernando Valiño Anna Àvila David Elustondo Jesús M Santamaría Andrés Alastuey Héctor CalveteSogo Ignacio GonzálezFernández Rocío Alonso
Publish Date: 2015/12/01
Volume: 23, Issue: 7, Pages: 6400-6413
Abstract
Periurban vegetation is generally accepted as a significant remover of atmospheric pollutants but it could also be threatened by these compounds with origin in both urban and nonurban areas To characterize the seasonal and geographical variation of pollutant concentrations and to improve the empirical understanding of the influence of Mediterranean broadleaf evergreen forests on air quality four forests of Quercus ilex three periurban and one remote were monitored in different areas in Spain Concentrations of nitrogen dioxide NO2 ammonia NH3 nitric acid HNO3 and ozone O3 were measured during 2 years in open areas and inside the forests and aerosols PM10 were monitored in open areas during 1 year Ozone was the only air pollutant expected to have direct phytotoxic effects on vegetation according to current thresholds for the protection of vegetation The concentrations of N compounds were not high enough to directly affect vegetation but could be contributing through atmospheric N deposition to the eutrophization of these ecosystems Periurban forests of Q ilex showed a significant belowcanopy reduction of gaseous concentrations particularly NH3 with a mean reduction of 29–38 which indicated the feasibility of these forests to provide an ecosystem service of air quality improvement Welldesigned monitoring programs are needed to further investigate air quality improvement by periurban ecosystems while assessing the threat that air pollution can pose to vegetationThis research was funded by the Spanish project EDEN CGL200913188C0302 by the project from Autonomous Government of Madrid AGRISOSTCM P2013/ABI2717 and by the European Projects ECLAIRE FP7ENV2011/282910 and Life RESPIRA LIFE13 ENV/ES/000417 This study was also supported by the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Environment Resolución 15398 BOE no 230 The authors would like to acknowledge the Department of Environment DGQA of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia for performing the active monitoring of air pollutants at LC “MSY” station from GAW/ACTRIS monitoring networks and thank the Government of Navarre for providing valuable data on air quality We sincerely acknowledge the two anonymous reviewers for a very constructive revision of our work
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