Wednesday, 9 November 2005
6

The Dust Adsorption Capacities and Its Mechanisms of Turfgrass Species.

Yu-Jen Kuo, Chinese Culture University, 55, Hwa-Ken Rd., Taipei, Taiwan, Yuan-Chun Yeh, National Chung-Hsing University, 250, Kuo-Kuang Rd, Taichung, Taiwan, and Yu-Sen Chang, National Taiwan University, No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, Taiwan.

Air pollution, especially the dust is the most serious problem that affects the health of children's respiration system. Ground cover plants, such as turfgrass are good for air cleaning. However, the dust absorption capacity is varied by genetic differences. Common bermudagrass (Cynodon L.C. Rich), bermudagrass'419' (C. dactylon x C. transvaalensis), centipedegrass (Eremocchloa ophiuroides (Munro), tropical carpetgrass (Axonopus compressus (Swartz) Beauv.), St. Augustinegrass 'Floratine' (Stenotaphrom secundatum (Walt.) Kun), and zoysiagrass'Emerald' (Zoysia japonica x Z. Tenuifolia) were chosen in this research. Experiments were conducted both in the field and environmental controlled chamber. The relationship between Dust adsorption capacities and the greenness of turfgrass leaves were determined using SPAD-502 chlorophyll meter. The mechanisms of dust adsorption by leaves were also examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). From the results we found that wide texture species such as centipedegrass and tropical carpetgrass have higher dust adsorption efficiency than narrow texture species of common bermudagrassAbermudagrass'419', and zoysiagrass'Emerald'. This phenomenon is probably because of the growth habit of turfgrass blade. Examined by SEM revealed that the roughness of leaf surface structure such as centipedegrass and tropical carpetgrass absorbed more dust than smoothness of leaf surface of bermudagrass cultivars and zoysiagrass. The results also indicated that the chlorophyll meter reading was closely linked to dust accumulation on the leaves. The Chlorophyll meter measurement offers an alternative to the detection of air dust pollution. In the future, the standard curve must be established of different turfgrass species.

Handout (.pdf format, 572.0 kb)

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