Green Rooftops Could Help Cities Like Shanghai Filter Out Tons of Microplastics from Rainwater
The research team at Tongji University collaborated with a colleague from the Shanghai Academy of Landscape Architecture Science and Planning, finding that growing plants on roofs can be an effective method for removing microplastics from the air. In this study, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, the team measured the amounts of microplastics on the plants and soil in which they grow. Previous research has shown that growing plants on roofs can reduce heating and cooling bills, as well as clear the air surrounding them of pollution.
Testing Plant Types and Microplastic Exposure
As per the study, the research team found whether the growing plants have microplastics or not. To know this, they planted two different types of plants, which are used on rooftops in Shanghai. Further, they introduced microplastic particles in the air near those plants at common levels found in Shanghai. The researchers then introduced simulated rains, after measuring the microplastic levels in the soil and on the plants.
Green Roofs Trap the Majority of Microplastics from Rain
What they found was that the plants did a great job of pulling the microplastics from the rain by growing through the air above them. The green roof system created by researchers consisted of a soil layer, which pulled the microplastics from the rainwater that falls on it to around 97.5%.
Microplastics Mostly Captured in Soil, Not on Leaves
And after conducting the measurements through multiple rains, the team came to know that the percentage of microplastics removed further increased with the intensity of the rainfall.
The researchers found that leaves were collecting less of the microplastics, but the bulk was deposited in the soil in a better way, rather than in a fibre-like shape.
Shanghai’s Green Roof Potential to Capture Microplastics
The team noted that Shanghai currently has only 38.33 million square feet of roof occupied by vegetation. However, based on their findings, they suggest, it is possible that Shanghai could capture around 56.2 metric tons of microplastic every year if the rooftops of all the buildings were made green.
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Science
Meteorite From Outer Solar System Challenges Planet Formation Timeline in Early Solar System
A minuscule meteorite seems to be rewriting the history of our solar system. The 50-gram Northwest Africa 12264 has brought a new understanding of when and how rocky worlds came together. Inner planets such as Earth and Mars were thought to have formed earlier than their more distant siblings, given temperatures and composition. But a new study of this meteorite, which originates from beyond the asteroid belt, suggests that the birth of planets throughout the solar system occurred tens of millions of years earlier than previously believed, narrowing the gap in time between the solar system’s inner and outer surfaces.
Outer Solar System Meteorite Reveals Rocky Planets Likely Formed Simultaneously Across the Galaxy
As per a study led by Dr Ben Rider-Stokes of The Open University and published in Communications Earth & Environment, the meteorite’s chemical makeup offers critical evidence. Its chromium and oxygen isotope ratios place its origin in the outer solar system. Most strikingly, lead isotope dating determined its age to be about 4.564 billion years, almost identical to basalt samples from the inner solar system that represent early planetary crusts.
These findings directly challenge the previous assumption that rocky planets beyond Jupiter formed two to three million years later due to their water-rich composition. Ice and water were thought to slow differentiation, the internal layering of planetary bodies. But this meteorite, with its outer solar birth and inner solar age, points to a far more synchronised process of rocky planet formation.
Scientists note that the discovery is also consistent with observations of exoplanetary systems. Based on this and past observations of disks of dust and gas around other stars, the evidence of planetesimals forming quickly and over large orbital separations adds to the argument that early solar system evolution may have been more universal than thought.
As trivial as the time difference might be in the context of a universe, the question is huge. A new timeline of planet formation is not only a retelling of Earth’s history but may also help determine how astronomers think about how planets form in the galaxy more generally, providing new hints about where and how in the galaxy Earth-like planets could take shape.
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