Environmental safety of residential areas of settlements based on the monitoring of aerosol acidity
Abstract
Environmental safety of residential areas of settlements based on the monitoring of aerosol acidity
Incoming article date: 24.07.2021Monitoring the acidity index of aerosols is one of the directions of ensuring the ecological safety of settlements. The purpose of this work was to study the acidity index (pH) of aerosol suspensions (washing off aerosols from the leaves of apricot trees (Prunus armeniaca) obtained in the village of Sredny Akhtuba (Sredneakhtubinsky district of the Volgograd region) in the spring-summer of 2019. Leaves with aerosol particles served as the material for the study. of one species of woody plants (apricot trees (Prunus armeniaca)), where 1 sample was 300-400 cm2 of leaf surface area. In the experimental territory and in the conditionally clean zone, a total of 200 samples were studied. Thus, 1 sample of leaves of apricot trees (Prunus armeniaca) was placed in a glass container with 250 ml of distilled water, stirred for several minutes with a glass rod to wash off particles from the surface of the leaves.As a result, aerosol suspensions were obtained, which were further investigated in terms of acidity (pH). electrochemical equipment of the "MULTEST" series (Russia). To verify the insignificance of the differences in the samples, we used the apparatus for testing the hypotheses about the homogeneity of the samples - the nonparametric Kruskal - Wallis test. Statistical hypotheses were tested at a significance level of 0.05. All necessary calculations were performed in the R statistical package (version 3.6.1, R Core Team 2020). The results of testing the hypotheses indicate that there are no statistically significant differences within each study area. Thus, at a significance level of α = 0.05, the hypotheses about the homogeneity of the samples are recognized as significant, and accordingly, they can be compared. The studies carried out made it possible to establish acidic aerosols in the atmosphere of Srednyaya Akhtuba compared to the conditionally clean zone (SNT "Oroshenets", "Shelf"), which indicates environmental risks for the population.
Keywords: environmental safety, monitoring, aerosols, acidity, pH, urban environment