Health status of landscaping trees in different habitats in Beijing, China.

The health of urban trees is jointly influenced by species-specific environmental adaptability and habitat heterogeneity, posing severe challenges for management. We investigated landscaping trees in Beijing, established a five-tier health evaluation system (healthy, sub-healthy, unhealthy, severe decline, and moribund) comprising 14 indicators. Then, we analyzed current health status and the influence of six typical habitats: dense forest, sparse forest, tree belt, tree pond, waterside, and buildingside.

[Dust absorption capacities of eight evergreen broad-leaved plants in Beijing, China.].

Aiming at selecting the evergreen broad-leaved plants with excellent dust capturing capacity that can be applied in Beijing area for improving the urban vegetation dust removal, this study selected 8 evergreen (including semi-evergreen) broad-leaved plants used in urban green-space in Beijing area to measure the dust absorption per unit leaf area by the elution-mass method during winter and early spring in 2014. The dust deposition per leaf and per plant of each species was further calculated for tested species. Based on the dust capturing capacity measured in different units, cluster analysis on the comprehensive dust absorption capacities of different plants was carried out from the corresponding aspect.