TITLE:
Carbon Dioxide Sequestration Capability of the Botanical Garden of Rome: Environmental and Economic Benefits
AUTHORS:
Loretta Gratani, Rosangela Catoni, Flavio Tarquini
KEYWORDS:
Air Quality Amelioration, Plant Collections, Urban Greening
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.10 No.8,
August
9,
2019
ABSTRACT: Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gases contributing
to increase air temperature. Urban areas covered by
parks, gardens, tree-lined avenues, sports fields, and hedges are important sinks for CO2. Urban green areas should include the Botanical Gardens, taking into
consideration their key role in ex situ plant conservation as well as air
quality amelioration and social benefits. In such context, the CO2 sequestration capability of the most
representative plant collections developing in the Botanical Garden of Rome and
their influence on microclimate was analyzed. Our results highlight that plant collections have a CO2 sequestration capability of 6947 Mg CO2 year-1. The CO2 sequestration capability and air temperature lowering by plant collections
growing in the Botanical Garden have positive effects (p ≤ 0.05) on the
surrounding area resulting in 4% CO2 concentration and 1°C air
temperature decreasing at 150 m from the centre of the Garden.