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Forests
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The Response of Trees to Air Pollution in Urban Forests
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The Response of Trees to Air Pollution in Urban Forests

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 May 2024 | Viewed by 3570

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Slaveya T. Petrova

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Guest Editor
1. Department of Ecology and Environmental Conservation, Faculty of Biology, Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”, 24 Tzar Assen Street, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
2. Department of Microbiology and Ecological biotechnologies, Faculty of Plant protection and Agroecology, Agricultural University, 12 Mendeleev Blvd, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Interests: urban ecology; urban vegetation; biomonitoring; environmental pollution; oxidative stress; soil ecology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Dragana Pavlović

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Ecology, Institute for Biological Research 'Siniša Stanković'—National Institute of Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Bulevar despota Stefana 142, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Interests: environmental pollution; adaptive response of plants; soils science; bioaccumulation and biomonitoring

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The urbanization rate in recent decades, combined with global climate change, has led to dynamic changes in the environmental factors which pose new challenges for urban vegetation. Heat island, higher albedo of buildings’ surfaces, lower moisture, and significant pollution of both air and soil represent a small number of all negative effects of urban landscape to green infrastructure. To address these problems and to build a sustainable urban green infrastructure, the first step should be related to studying the reaction specificity and the tolerance to air pollution of the urban forests in the actual cities’ conditions, and then performing a revision and revaluation of the adaptation ability of the newly planted trees to the degraded urban environment.

We encourage studies from all fields related to the effects of air pollution of urban trees to contribute to this Special Issue. Such information will inform researchers in the fields of air pollution, tree physiology, and urban forestry, as well as landscape architects, arborists, and urban planners.

This Special Issue plans to provide an overview of the most recent advances in the field of sustainable urban forests’ management and the possibilities for enhancing the ecosystem services they provide.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

  • Oxidative stress;
  • Dose–response mechanisms;
  • Impact on plant physiology;
  • Impact on trees diversity;
  • Impact on trees development;
  • Leaf threats;
  • Biochemical markers;
  • Molecular traits.

Dr. Slaveya T. Petrova
Dr. Dragana Pavlović
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • air pollution
  • urban forest
  • ecosystem services
  • oxidative stress
  • bioaccumulation

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 6322 KiB  
Article
Bioaccumulation of Potentially Toxic Elements in Tilia tomentosa Moench Trees from Urban Parks and Potential Health Risks from Using Leaves and Flowers for Medicinal Purposes
by Miroslava Mitrović, Olga Kostić, Zorana Miletić, Milica Marković, Natalija Radulović, Dimitrije Sekulić, Snežana Jarić and Pavle Pavlović
Forests 2023, 14(11), 2204; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14112204 - 06 Nov 2023
Viewed by 932
Abstract
Potentially toxic element (PTE) contamination in medicinal plants, particularly those growing in urban environments, can cause human health issues. Therefore, this study evaluated trace element accumulation and translocation patterns (As, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Sr, and Zn) in the aboveground tissue of common [...] Read more.
Potentially toxic element (PTE) contamination in medicinal plants, particularly those growing in urban environments, can cause human health issues. Therefore, this study evaluated trace element accumulation and translocation patterns (As, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Sr, and Zn) in the aboveground tissue of common Tilia tomentosa Moench, often used as a medicinal plant, sampled in Belgrade’s urban parks (Zemunski Park, Park Blok 63, and Park Topčider). Our results indicated that this species exhibits the ability to accumulate and translocate PTEs, particularly Cu, in its aboveground parts. It was found that the levels of Cu and Sr in flowers were within the toxic range for plants, indicating a potential risk in using T. tomentosa flowers from Park Topčider for medicinal purposes. The maximum Estimated Daily Intake of Ni from the consumption of leaves and flowers of plants growing in two parks (Zemunski Park and Park Topčider) exceeded the corresponding Provisional Tolerable Daily Intake. Additionally, the Carcinogenic Risk calculated for Cr present in flowers was above the USEPA limit (3.021 × 10−3), indicating possible adverse effects on human health and a carcinogenic risk from ingesting tea prepared from T. tomentosa flowers from Park Topčider. Our research underlines how crucial it is to cautiously use medicinal tree species growing in urban parks in residential areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Response of Trees to Air Pollution in Urban Forests)
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14 pages, 4437 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Potential of Urban Trees to Accumulate Potentially Toxic Elements: A Network Approach
by Marija Matić, Dragana Pavlović, Veljko Perović, Dragan Čakmak, Olga Kostić, Miroslava Mitrović and Pavle Pavlović
Forests 2023, 14(11), 2116; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14112116 - 24 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1028
Abstract
In urbanized areas, mitigating the negative effects of pollutants from various anthropogenic sources is one of the most important issues in planning urban functioning and development. In this sense, urban vegetation plays one of the most important roles. The aim of this study [...] Read more.
In urbanized areas, mitigating the negative effects of pollutants from various anthropogenic sources is one of the most important issues in planning urban functioning and development. In this sense, urban vegetation plays one of the most important roles. The aim of this study was to investigate the performance of network analysis (NA) as a novel and potential method for determining different associations between potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in leaves of urban trees, their accumulation capacity and ecophysiological response to different types of pollution in urban environments. The results of NA showed that there is no association between elements in species that have lower or higher efficiency in uptake of PTEs, leading to the conclusion that the elements do not depend on mutual association but on accumulation itself. It was also found that there are differences in the content of photosynthetic pigments and carotenoids among the studied species, but these differences are not reflected in the values of the photosynthetic efficiency parameters. Overall, the studied species have good ecophysiological potential for growth and existence in the urban environment, despite the varying ability to accumulate elements and the different associations between them. This is the first study to investigate the interactions between PTEs in leaves of urban tree species using NA and provides a good basis for future research under different environmental conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Response of Trees to Air Pollution in Urban Forests)
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16 pages, 8505 KiB  
Article
Plant Traits of Tilia tomentosa Moench, Fraxinus excelsior L., and Pinus nigra J.F.Arnold as a Proxy of Urbanization
by Slaveya Petrova and Mariana Petkova
Forests 2023, 14(4), 800; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14040800 - 13 Apr 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1231
Abstract
Linden, ash, and pine are ubiquitous ornamental trees due to their ability to adapt to the urban environment. They have been key species in urban green infrastructure from more than hundreds of years and play an active role in maintaining ecosystem services. The [...] Read more.
Linden, ash, and pine are ubiquitous ornamental trees due to their ability to adapt to the urban environment. They have been key species in urban green infrastructure from more than hundreds of years and play an active role in maintaining ecosystem services. The urbanization rate in recent decades, combined with global climate change, has led to dynamic changes in the environmental factors which pose new challenges to urban vegetation. Hence, the aims of this study were as follows: (i) to track changes in the content of some elements in plant leaves after transplanting them into an urban environment; (ii) to investigate the relationship between urbanization intensity with plant traits (leaf injuries, photosynthetic activity, transpiration, stomatal conductance, and molecular changes); and (iii) to provide recommendations for improving the management and ecological functions of urban trees. To address these aims, data on urbanization intensity (according to the percentage of built-up area and traffic volume), plant performance, and intraspecific variations of silver linden (Tilia tomentosa), European ash (Fraxinus excelsior), and European black pine (Pinus nigra) were collected at four experimental plots in the city of Plovdiv (Bulgaria) during 2015–2020. The initial concentrations of some potentially toxic elements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Pb, V, and Zn) in the tree leaves at the beginning (prior to planting into the urban environment) and at the end of the experiment were also measured. We illustrate that the growth of urbanization intensity increased the concentrations of potentially toxic elements in tree leaves, caused leaf injuries, and enhanced the maximum photosynthetic rate but decreased the transpiration rate and stomatal conductance. At the molecular level, the percentage of polymorphic bands was also found to depend on urbanization intensity. High similarity was observed between the trees in the first three experimental plots (subjected to urbanization load), with the lowest similarity in the control plot. These findings are of high practical value for urban planners regarding how to build a new green infrastructure and how to preserve plant diversity in urban areas across urbanization gradients. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Response of Trees to Air Pollution in Urban Forests)
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