Impact of Air Pollution from Quarrying and Stone Cutting Industries on Agriculture and Plant Biodiversity

Abstract

More than 300 quarries and 1000 stone cutting industries are exist in Palestine, with a total annual yield of 100 million tons of raw stone and 25 million square meters of good stone. Unfortunately, this industry is usually associated with air pollution. To assess the impact of such action on agriculture and plant biodiversity, two methods including measurement of the particulate matters (PM) as well as a social survey were used in this study. Significant high concentrations of particulate matter/dust as well as total suspended solids (TSP) were presented in the three examined sites located at the northern region of West-Bank, Palestine. This indeed implies the occurrence of high amount of air pollution and dust in the examined areas which significantly exceed the international standards. Furthermore, a notable negative impact of quarrying on plant biodiversity, habitat destruction, and plant survival is also revealed. Based on the questionnaire results and due to quarrying and stone cutting industries, wide range of the plants were affected or even extinct, in which olive was the most affected one with average respondents of 31%. According to the obtained results, it is highly recommended to develop green belt surroundings the quarrying using pollutant-tolerant trees (usually with broad leaves) in order to restrict spreading of quarrying dust via intercepting, filtering and absorbing pollutants.