Tracking Airborne Pollution with Environmental Magnetism in A Medium-Sized African City
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Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, University of Maroua, Maroua P.O. Box 814, Cameroon
2
Géosciences Environnement Toulouse, Université de Toulouse, CNES, CNRS, IRD, UPS, 31400 Toulouse, France
3
Laboratoire d’Aérologie, Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse 3, CNRS, 31400 Toulouse, France
4
Department of Life and Earth Sciences, Higher Teachers’ Training College, University of Maroua, Maroua P.O. Box 55, Cameroon
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Stephan Havemann
Atmosphere 2021, 12(10), 1281; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12101281
Received: 10 August 2021
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Revised: 23 September 2021
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Accepted: 23 September 2021
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Published: 1 October 2021
(This article belongs to the Section Aerosols)
As in other parts of the world, air pollution over West and Central Africa has major health and meteorological impacts. Air quality assessment and its possible sanitary impact have become essential even in medium-sized towns, therefore amplifying the need for easy-to-implement monitoring methods with low environmental impact. We present here the potential of magnetic methods to monitor air quality at street level in the medium-sized city of Maroua (northern Cameroon) affected by dust-laden desert winds. More than five hundred (544) samples of bark and leaves taken from Neem trees in Maroua were analyzed. Magnetic susceptibility, saturation remanence, and S-ratio were found to determine the concentration and nature of magnetic particles. They are dominated by magnetite-like particle signals as a part of particulate emissions due to urban activities, including both traffic, composed of a substantial proportion of motorcycles, and wood burning for food preparation. We show that both bark and leaves from Neem trees are adequate passive bio-recorders. The use of both enables different times and heights to be sampled, allowing for the high-resolution monitoring, in terms of spatialization, of various urban environments. Particle emissions require assessment and screening that could be carried out rapidly and efficiently by magnetic methods on bio-recorders, even in cities impacted by dust-laden wind.
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Keywords:
magnetic susceptibility; biomagnetism; neem trees; Central Africa; deposited atmospheric dust; urban pollution; air quality
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MDPI and ACS Style
Dawaï, D.; Macouin, M.; Rousse, S.; Léon, J.-F.; Gountié Dedzo, M.; Drigo, L. Tracking Airborne Pollution with Environmental Magnetism in A Medium-Sized African City. Atmosphere 2021, 12, 1281. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12101281
AMA Style
Dawaï D, Macouin M, Rousse S, Léon J-F, Gountié Dedzo M, Drigo L. Tracking Airborne Pollution with Environmental Magnetism in A Medium-Sized African City. Atmosphere. 2021; 12(10):1281. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12101281
Chicago/Turabian StyleDawaï, Daouda, Mélina Macouin, Sonia Rousse, Jean-François Léon, Merlin Gountié Dedzo, and Loïc Drigo. 2021. "Tracking Airborne Pollution with Environmental Magnetism in A Medium-Sized African City" Atmosphere 12, no. 10: 1281. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12101281
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