Particulate Matter (PM) Adsorption and Leaf Characteristics of Ornamental Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) Cultivars and Two Common Indoor Plants (Hedera helix L. and Epipremnum aureum Lindl. & Andre)

Abstract

Particulate matter (PM) is a serious threat to human health, climate, and ecosystems. Furthermore, owing to the combined influence of indoor and outdoor particles, indoor PM can pose a greater threat than urban PM. Plants can help to reduce PM pollution by acting as biofilters. Plants with different leaf characteristics have varying capacities to capture PM. However, the PM mitigation effects of plants and their primary factors are unclear. In this study, we investigated the PM adsorption and leaf characteristics of five ornamental sweet potato (Ipomea batatas L.) cultivars and two common indoor plants (Hedera helix L. and Epipremnum aureum Lindl. & Andre) exposed to approximately 300 μg m−3 of fly ash particles to assess the factors influencing PM adsorption on leaves and to understand the effects of PM pollution on the leaf characteristics of plants. We analyzed the correlation between PM adsorption and photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration rate (Tr), leaf area (LA), leaf width/length ratio (W/L), stomatal density (SD), and stomatal pore size (SP). A Pearson’s correlation analysis and a principal component analysis (PCA) were used to evaluate the effects of different leaf characteristics on PM adsorption. The analysis indicated that leaf gas exchange factors, such as Pn and Tr, and morphological factors, such as W/L and LA, were the primary parameters influencing PM adsorption in all cultivars and species tested. Pn, Tr, and W/L showed a positive correlation with PM accumulation, whereas LA was negatively correlated.