Plant ability to purify atmosphere and development of organic gas absorption model

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19H04257
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 63010:Environmental dynamic analysis-related
• Research Institution: University of Shizuoka
• Principal Investigator: Tani Akira 静岡県立大学, 食品栄養科学部, 教授 (50240958)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 高橋 善幸 国立研究開発法人国立環境研究所, 地球システム領域, 室長 (40280713) ; 望月 智貴 静岡県立大学, 食品栄養科学部, 助教 (50781811)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 有機ガス / 曝露実験 / 気孔開度 / 大気濃度

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We have revealed that plants can absorb several groups of organic gases by fumigation experiments at realistically low concentrations. The absorption rates are correlated with stomatal conductance and approximately zero in the dark period, suggesting that the gases are absorbed through stomata.
We applied Fick’s first law of diffusion to a VOC absorption model for plant leaves to evaluate the relative contribution to VOC absorption by individual sites of air spaces and in cells of leaves. Leaf morphology parameters were obtained from leaf cross-section micrographs. This model accounts for the VOC diffusion process via stomata, air-liquid partitioning, partitioning into the plasma membrane, and metabolic conversion of the VOC in plant cells. Our VOC absorption model can determine the relative importance of resistances at individual sites in the absorption pathway both for different VOCs and plant species.

Free Research Field

農業気象学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

植物が有機ガスを吸収することは、いくつかの物質で報告があるが、ほとんどの実験がppmレベルの大気濃度と比べはるかに高い濃度で実験が行われてきた。このような高濃度の実験は、実験上不確実性が増えるため、科学的エビデンスとしては信頼性が高くない。本研究は、曝露装置に工夫を凝らすことで、大気濃度のppbレベルの有機ガスを用いて曝露実験を実施した。これによって、新たに複数種の有機ガスが継続的に植物に吸収されることを明らかにできた。一般社会で都市の植物や室内の観葉植物の、様々なガス種の大気浄化能力を定量化でき、社会における植物の新たな価値を示すことができた。