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Monitoring of air pollutants using plants and co-located soil—Egypt: characteristics, pollution, and toxicity impact

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Abstract

The present work was conducted to evaluate the air quality in terms of inorganic pollutants and toxicity impact using two evergreen tree leaves, Eucalyptus globulus Labill (E. globulus) and Ficus microcarpa L.f., Suppl. Pl. 442 (1782) (F. microcarpa) as biomonitors. Thirty tree leaves and an equal number of co-located soil samples from different regions of Egypt (urban Greater Cairo Metropolitan (GC) and rural Menoufia Governorate (MG)) were collected. The concentrations of 34 and 40 elements were determined using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INNA) and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) in tree leaves and soils, respectively. Bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses were implemented. The air pollution was assessed using enrichment factor, pollution load index, potential ecological risk, and risk index. In addition, human and ecotoxicity were evaluated based on the ReCiPe method. The mean concentration values of the obtained elements in tree leave in urban Greater Cairo and rural Menoufia Governorate show that the major elements are slightly higher in F. microcarpa than in E. globulus. Likewise, the mean values of elements in soil from GC and MG show no significant difference except for major elements (Fe, Al, Mg, K, Na, and Ti) in MG. The normalized concentrations of tree leave and soil show that the accumulated elements by F. macrocarpa are slightly higher than in E. globulus in GC and MG. While in terms of the investigated area, the concentrations of elements in MG are considerably higher than in GC. Pollution load index (PLI) spatial distribution over investigated areas showed that despite high population density, heavy traffic, and urban pollution, the Cairo samples exhibit significantly lower values as compared to those from Menoufia, which is most likely due to the uncontrolled industrial and domestic waste disposal outside Cairo. Potential ecological risk (PER) was significant for As in soil and for As and Cd in tree species. Human toxicity shows higher values in urban locations. Contrariwise, in the terrestrial ecotoxicity aspect, the rural locations are much higher than in urban ones.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

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Funding

The authors acknowledge the joint project #405 between the Academy of scientific research and technology (Egypt) and Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna—Russia) ASRT-JINR collaboration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Radiation Protection & Civil Defense Department, Nuclear Research Center, Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority (EAEA), Abu Zaabal, 13759, Egypt

    Wael M. Badawy

  2. Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, str. Joliot-Curie, 6, 141980, Dubna, Moscow Region, Russia

    Wael M. Badawy, Octavian G. Duliu, Nikita Yushin & Marina Frontasyeva

  3. Faculty of Science, Department of Physics, Menoufia University, Shibin El-koom, Egypt

    Yasmin Sarhan, Hussein El Samman & Abdel Azim Hussein

  4. Faculty of Physics, Department of Atomic and Nuclear Physics, University of Bucharest, 405, Atomistilor str, 077125, Magurele, Romania

    Octavian G. Duliu

  5. CREIDD Research Centre on Environmental Studies & Sustainability, Department of Humanity, Environment & Information Technology, the University of Technology of Troyes, Troyes, France

    Junbeum Kim

  6. Division for Geology of School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, Russia

    Junbeum Kim

  7. Faculty of Soil Science, Moscow State University, Moscow, 119991, Russia

    Alexey Shcheglov

Authors
  1. Wael M. Badawy
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  2. Yasmin Sarhan
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  3. Octavian G. Duliu
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  4. Junbeum Kim
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  5. Nikita Yushin
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  6. Hussein El Samman
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  7. Abdel Azim Hussein
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  8. Marina Frontasyeva
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  9. Alexey Shcheglov
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Contributions

Wael M. Badawy: conceptualization, methodology, writing original draft; Yasmin Sarhan: visualization, investigation; Octavian G Duliu: writing—reviewing and editing; Junbeum Kim: writing original draft, reviewing and editing; Nikita Yushin: writing review and editing; Hussein El Samman: writing review and editing; A. Hussein: validation; Marina V. Frontasyeva: supervision; Alexey I. Shcheglov: software, validation.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Wael M. Badawy or Junbeum Kim.

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Highlights

• The air quality in Greater Cairo (GC) and Menoufia Governorate (MG) was evaluated in terms of inorganic pollutants.

• INAA and AAS were used to determine a total of 35 and 40 elements in plants and soil, respectively.

• Integrative pollution indices and human and ecotoxicity were calculated.

• Rural areas (MG) had a higher level of pollution than urban areas (GC).

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Badawy, W.M., Sarhan, Y., Duliu, O.G. et al. Monitoring of air pollutants using plants and co-located soil—Egypt: characteristics, pollution, and toxicity impact. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 21049–21066 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17218-7

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