The effect of nighttime lighting on the anatomical and physiological features of the leaves of linden, horse chestnut, and plane trees in garden-park and street plantings of Kyiv

Abstract

The effect of nighttime lighting on the anatomical and morphological structure and the content of photosynthetic pigments in the leaves of Tilia cordata, Aesculus hippocastanum, and Platanus acerifolia was estimated on the example of garden-park and street plantings of Kyiv. At the experimental sites, the level of illumination and the soil surface temperature during the day and night periods were examined. The anatomical and morphological structure of the leaves was studied using transmission electron microscopy. The content of photosynthetic pigments (chlorophylls and carotenoids) in tree leaves was determined spectrophotometrically. The analysis of variance revealed that nighttime lighting significantly affected the anatomical structure and the content of photosynthetic pigments in the leaves of T. cordata and P. acerifolia. In A. hippocastanum, only parameters of stomata and palisade parenchyma showed a significant reaction to this stress factor.

Keywords

• Tilia cordata
• Aesculus hippocastanum
• Platanus acerifolia
• nighttime lighting
• photosynthetic pigments
• stomata area