Assessment Some of Heavy Metals in Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) in the Yazd Highway Green Belt

The aim of this study was to assess the performance of Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust tree) to accumulation some of heavy metals and compared with the concentration of these metals in falling dust Yazd highway green belt. In order to an experiment was conducted as factorial based on completely randomized design with four replications. The results showed that the concentration of, iron, manganese, zinc, lead and cadmium metals in falling dust were the highest to the lowest, respectively. The distance from the highway in the concentration of heavy metals in leaves and bark of the black locust tree showed significant results (P<0.01). Also, the effect of heavy metals in the leaves of this tree was higher than that of bark. Concentrations of manganese, cobalt, nickel and cadmium metals increased with increasing distance from the highway due to multi-directional winds and the presence of other contaminants. The Pearson correlation analysis between heavy metals found in the falling dust and Robinia pseudoacacia showed that the input and controlling factors of these metals in the black locust tree are probably the same as the dust. The results showed that the leaves of Robinia pseudoacacia with the amount of metal accumulation index of 4438 mg/kg has more ability to simultaneously absorb different metals. As a result, since this green belt surrounds Yazd urban area, it is hoped that a significant amount of heavy metals will be absorbed by these trees.