Studies show they can improve air quality. They're a great habitat for plants and wildlife, and they help slow water runoff and protect the land from flooding and erosion.
Often underestimated, hedgerows are extremely important in combating environmental pollution. In some areas of the earth, such as Britain, they form the largest semi-natural habitat in which plants and wildlife find refuge. Planted extensively in the past to beautify vast gardens or mark the boundaries of agricultural fields, the strengths of hedges are many more: studies have shown that they can make an important contribution to improving air quality.
Hedge features against pollution
Hedge features help slow water runoff, defend the land from flooding and soil erosion, and act as barriers to help prevent pesticide and fertilizer pollution from entering water supplies. They also manage to trap air pollution by improving air quality. Since 1945, however, more than half of all hedgerows have been destroyed, left to decay.
While forests are often mentioned for reducing carbon dioxide, researchers now urge expanding the field to include hedgerows, which also store carbon in their shoots and roots. The Independent Panel on Climate Change has recommended planting 40 percent more hedgerows by 2050, and that's one of the goals of Britain, for example, ahead of Cop26, the United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow.
Turning to the potential of planting hedges, research conducted in Switzerland and the UK, published in Nature, found that plants absorb more CO2 precisely when the atmosphere is polluted.Another study from the University of Surrey, on the other hand, confirmed that shrubs absorb pollutants better than tall trees. The analysis, published a few years ago in the British journal Atmospheric Environment has shown that hedges are able to absorb pollution, produced for example by vehicle traffic, more effectively than real trees.
The shape, the arrangement of leaves and the proximity to sources of gas production and particulate matter of the shrubs of the hedges are a kind of barrier that significantly reduces the direct exposure of pedestrians and cyclists to particulate matter and carbon dioxide. That's why European and American experts are trying to promote to local governments the idea of planting hedges where possible in cities to ensure cleaner air for citizens.
The issue of climate change and protecting our atmosphere has become paramount. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, for example, has reported that the Gulf Stream is nearly collapsing because of global warming caused by environmental pollution.
Stefania Bernardini