PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLE bioresources.com Kuzmina et al. (2023). “Change of aluminum in plants,” BioResources 18(1), 792-803. 792 Change of Aluminum Concentrations in Specific Plants by Species, Organ, Washing, and Traffic Density Nadezhda Kuzmina, a Sergey Menshchikov, a Pavel Mohnachev, a Konstantin Zavyalov, a Irina Petrova, a Halil Baris Ozel, b Burak Aricak, c Saadettin Murat Onat, d, * and Hakan Sevik e One of the most critical problems throughout the world is air pollution, causing the death of millions of individuals annually, and it is reported that 90% of the global population breathes polluted air. Among the components of air pollution, the most harmful ones are the heavy metals, which can remain non-degraded in nature for a long time, bio-accumulate in living organisms, and be toxic or carcinogenic at low concentrations. Hence, monitoring and reducing heavy metal pollution in the air are high-priority research topics. Heavy metals can accumulate within various organs of plants grown in an environment with an increased level of heavy metal pollution. The metal analyses on these organs can provide insight into the heavy metal pollution in the air. In the present study, the concentrations of aluminum (Al), one of the most important heavy metals, were determined in the different organs of five plant species grown in regions with different traffic densities. Remarkable changes were observed in the Al concentrations in all the organs of species, which were examined here by organ and traffic density. The highest values were obtained from the organs of plants grown in no-traffic regions. DOI: 10.15376/biores.18.1.792-803 Keywords: Heavy metal; Air pollution; Biomonitor; Aluminum; Al Contact information: a: Academy of Sciences, Ural Branch: Institute of Botanical Garden, Yekaterinburg, Russia; b: Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forest Engineering, Bartın University, Bartın, Türkiye; c: Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forest Engineering, Bursa Technical University Bursa, Türkiye; d: Faculty of Forestry, Department of Forest Industry Engineering, Bartın University, Bartın, Türkiye; e: Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture, Kastamonu University, Kastamonu, Türkiye; *Corresponding author: smuratonat@bartin.edu.tr INTRODUCTION The increase in the global population to nearly 8 billion and the advancements in technology together with the Industrial Revolution over the last century have caused an excessive use of natural resources (Shahid et al. 2017; Koç 2021). During this process, the increasing use of almost all the natural resources and the release of minerals into nature, which were processed and used as raw materials in the industry, resulted in excessive pollution of the air (Turkyilmaz et al. 2020; Savas et al. 2021), water (Ucun Ozel et al. 2020), and soil (Bayraktar et al. 2019). Because anthropogenic activities are the main reasons for the pollution, the level of pollution further increases in urban areas, where the population intensity in a unit area is much higher (Maslennikov et al. 2015; Cesur et al. 2021). Air pollution, especially in urban areas, is a critical problem (Cetin et al. 2021). The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 90% of the global population is breathing