The effect of landfill biogas on vegetal growth

Abstract

The plants carry out the gaseous exchange during the photosynthesis and the respiration, however the stomal opening of the leaves or the flow through lenticels in the root are not selective, the anthropogenic biogas emissions enter to vegetable tissues altering its normal physiology. In landfill sites roots plants are exposed to a flow of a variable concentration of biogas, mainly composed by methane (CH4) 50-60% and carbon dioxide (CO2) 40-55%, product of the anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW). Biogas, according to its concentration and exposure time is likely to exert a negative effect on plant root growth; however, the mechanism is largely unknown. The aim of this revision was to revise the state of the art of the negative effect of biogas on plants that are close to landfill sites