The legacy effects of PM2.5 depositon on Nerium Oleander L.

Abstract Green plants have the capability to retain atmospheric particulate matter (PM) on their leaves, which can effectively reduce PM pollution, especially in the urban settings. Some studies reported that the periodic PM pollution could change plant retaining PM capacity, which, indeed, was the reason of physiological responses. In advancing the previous studies, we selected Nerium oleander L. to measure PM retention on leaf surface in a controlled environment by the following periods: initial pollution period (S1), recovery period (R), and secondary pollution period (S2) for a total of 12 weeks. The experimental design was one elevated pollution treatment (166 μg•m−3) and one ambient control (28 μg•m−3) with three replications. Results showed that during S2, the total retention decreased by 8.87 μg•cm−2, which was about 10.4% significant lower than in S1. During the third week, the ascorbic acid content (ASA) in S1 was 6.71 mg•g-1 significantly lower than that in S2 in the treatment. The total chlorophyll (Chl T) of the treatment decreased continuously and significantly by 33.8% in S1, but showed no similar trend in S2. The net photosynthetic rate of the treatment was significantly lower than that of the control, and the plants in the treatment showed a consistently high dark respiration rate than that in the control. The correlations between PM retention and ASA, Chl T and RWC were weaker in S1 than that in S2. In addition, air pollution tolerance index (APTI) showed a significant decline in plant pollution tolerance in the treatment during the third week.