Browsing by Author "Kämäräinen, Antti"

Street trees are an important part of a comfortable urban environment. Their beneficial effects in the built environment have been documented in a number of ways around the world. In urban environment tree roots are often grown in limited volumes of soil and competing for space with artificial construction materials and technical structures. Low oxygen concentrations in urban soils are considered as one of the major growth limiting factors, particularly under street pavements. The terrestrial growth conditions are difficult to alter in urban environment. By improving below-ground conditions, tree well-being and sustainability can be significantly increased. Increased ensign of growing conditions and the awareness of the value of urban trees have contributed to the creation of landscaping applications such as structural soil. This study compared gas concentrations in the air of structural and conventional soils, used in roadside tree plantings in the City of Helsinki. Soil air samples were collected during growing seasons 2012 and 2013. Proportions of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and methane in soil air were determined by a gas chromatograph. CO?-fluxes were used to evaluate the effect of the soil surfacing material to ground ventilation. Structural soil contained more oxygen in all depths compared to conventional tree soil. A strong correlation existed between oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations. It seems that cobblestone coating with wide seams does not impair the ground ventilation compared to soil covered with cast-iron grate. Atmospheric growth conditions were more favorable in the structural soil; however the oxygen concentrations in conventional soil were also high.