Interception of wet deposited atmospheric pollutants by herbaceous vegetation: Data review and modelling

Sci Total Environ. 2016 Sep 15:565:49-67. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.04.024. Epub 2016 May 6.

Abstract

Better understanding and predicting interception of wet deposited pollutants by vegetation remains a key issue in risk assessment studies of atmospheric pollution. We develop different alternative models, following either empirical or semi-mechanistic descriptions, on the basis of an exhaustive dataset consisting of 440 observations obtained in controlled experiments, from 1970 to 2014, for a wide variety of herbaceous plants, radioactive substances and rainfall conditions. The predictive performances of the models and the uncertainty/variability of the parameters are evaluated under Hierarchical Bayesian modelling framework. It is demonstrated that the variability of the interception fraction is satisfactorily explained and quite accurately modelled by a process-based alternative in which absorption of ionic substances onto the foliage surfaces is determined by their electrical valence. Under this assumption, the 95% credible interval of the predicted interception fraction encompasses 81% of the observations, including situations where either plant biomass or rainfall intensity are unknown. This novel approach is a serious candidate to challenge existing empirical relationships in radiological or chemical risk assessment tools.

Keywords: Bayesian inference; Interception by plant; Process-based modelling; Wet deposition.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Bayes Theorem
  • Environmental Monitoring / methods*
  • Environmental Pollution / analysis*
  • Environmental Pollution / statistics & numerical data*
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Plants / chemistry*
  • Plants / metabolism*
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis*
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / metabolism*

Substances

  • Water Pollutants, Chemical