Towards Providing Solutions to the Air Quality Crisis in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area: Carbon Sequestration by Succulent Species in Green Roofs

Discussion In this work we evaluated the capacity of two crassulacean Sedum species for capturing CO2, when grown in a green roof, during the day, and across the year. The months of February and March showed the maximum CO2 capture, 75% more than the summer month of June, a response that was possibly influenced by the temperature and precipitation patterns of the ZMVM. Consistent with the CAM, the highest CO2 uptake and accumulation of organic acids occurred early in the morning. We estimated that a green roof of Sedum of 100 square meters is able to sequester approximately 1.8 x 108 ppm of CO2 per year (or 180,000 g C m-2) in the ZMVM. Our quantifications are within the range of previous studies in Sedum species, which range from 160 g m-2 over two years 13, and 1940-3910 g C m-2 over a 12-14 month period 20. It is important to remark that Sedum plants were not irrigated, making these species an ideal candidate, with low irrigation and maintenance requirements, towards promoting naturation efforts in “megacities”. In our current scenario, carbon concentration in the air is increasing because of the intensive use of fossil fuels. This phenomenon is tightly linked to the growth of human populations and the loss of vegetation in cities, making the design of sustainable urban areas a challenging task. An example of a metropolitan area with poor air quality, linked to decades of deficient urban planning, and short-term solutions to address the air quality issue, is the ZMVM...
Source: PLOS Currents Disasters - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Source Type: research