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

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. Graphical abstract