The current study evaluates the impact of sewage sludge and urban reservoir sediment on changes in total and Toxic Equivalency (TEQ) PCDD/PCDF concentration in soil and phytotoxicity measured using three test species: Lepidium sativum, Sinapis alba, and Sorghum saccharatum, during 5 weeks of Cucurbita pepo L. cv 'Atena Polka' (zucchini) cultivation. 'Atena Polka' was found to reduce total PCDD/...

The infiltration of urban runoff always implies an entrance of pollutants into the soil and ground water. Due to legal regulations in many communes there is no longer any permission needed for stormwater infiltration, if administrative regulations and the requirements of standards are observed. The results of a research project carried out under the heading "Development of an assessment procedu...

to examine metal content of dandelion plants in relation to environmental metal levels,concentrations of cd, hg and pb were analyzed in plant parts (leaves and roots) and soil samples from fivesites in the city of brno (czech republic), differentially impacted by pollution. soils and plants werecollected mid-april 2011. atomic absorption spectrometry was used to determine concentrations of thes...

Cities are experiencing rapid population growth and consequently extensive urbanization. Land-use/land-cover change is one of the important elements worldwide, which significantly affect the environment. This study aims to describe the emergence of urban heat and cool islands as a result of changes in land-use/land-cover. Land surface temperature over a 32-year period in Isfahan city, Iran was ...

The present study documents the Hg content in 45 urban topsoil samples from the highly urbanized city of Athens, Greece. The Hg concentrations were quantified by applying aqua regia digestion on the <100 μm soil fraction followed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with a detection limit of 5 μg·kg−1. The median concentration of Hg in Athens soil is 96 μg·kg−1; ten out of 4...

Although urban community gardening can offer health, social, environmental, and economic benefits, these benefits must be weighed against the potential health risks stemming from exposure to contaminants such as heavy metals and organic chemicals that may be present in urban soils. Individuals who garden at or eat food grown in contaminated urban garden sites may be at risk of exposure to such ...

We investigated the effects of major environmental drivers associated with urbanization on species diversity and plant functional traits (PFTs) in the remnant subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests in Metropolitan Guangzhou (Guangdong, China). Twenty environmental factors including topography, light, and soil properties were used to quantify the effects of urbanization. Vegetation data and ...

Urban trees sequester carbon into biomass and provide many ecosystem service benefits aboveground leading to worldwide tree planting schemes. Since soils hold ∼75% of ecosystem organic carbon, understanding the effect of urban trees on soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil properties that underpin belowground ecosystem services is vital. We use an observational study to investigate effects of thre...

wind is the carrier of pollutants and any other gaseous or particle matters in the atmosphere. stable atmosphere with low wind provides favorable conditions for high contamination of pollutants in urban areas. the importance of mesoscale atmospheric flows in air pollution dispersion has been recognized in the past three decades and has been the focus of intensive research; both observational an...