Tracking Airborne Pollution with Environmental Magnetism in A Medium-Sized African City
Résumé
Abstract: As in other parts of the world, air pollution over West and Central Africa has major
health and meteorological impacts. Air quality assessment and its possible sanitary impact have
become essential even in medium-sized towns, therefore amplifying the need for easy-to-implement
monitoring methods with low environmental impact. We present here the potential of magnetic
methods to monitor air quality at street level in the medium-sized city of Maroua (northern Cameroon)
affected by dust-laden desert winds. More than five hundred (544) samples of bark and leaves taken
from Neem trees in Maroua were analyzed. Magnetic susceptibility, saturation remanence, and S-ratio
were found to determine the concentration and nature of magnetic particles. They are dominated by
magnetite-like particle signals as a part of particulate emissions due to urban activities, including both
traffic, composed of a substantial proportion of motorcycles, and wood burning for food preparation.
We show that both bark and leaves from Neem trees are adequate passive bio-recorders. The use of
both enables different times and heights to be sampled, allowing for the high-resolution monitoring,
in terms of spatialization, of various urban environments. Particle emissions require assessment and
screening that could be carried out rapidly and efficiently by magnetic methods on bio-recorders,
even in cities impacted by dust-laden wind.
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