Olesya Pishchimko^1,2 , Larisa Korobova¹ , and Vera Riksen³

¹ Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education Novosibirsk State Agrarian University, 160, Dobrolyubov str., Novosibirsk, 630039, Russia

² Federal State Budgetary Institution Siberian Regional Hydrometeorological Research Institute, 30, Sovetskaya str., Novosibirsk, 630099, Russia

³ Siberian Federal Research Center of Agrobiotechnologies of the Russian Academy of Science, Krasnoobsk, Novosibirsk region, 630501, Russia

Abstract

In the modern era of urbanization, air pollution is becoming a significant cause of changes in the health of the population. The contribution of the complex of atmospheric pollutants to the state of the urban environment can be assessed by the bioindication method. In the article, this is done using the fluctuating asymmetry of the leaf blades of the silver birch on the example of the one and a half million city of Novosibirsk and a rural settlement located 50 km away. Novosibirsk is an industrial center and has a high transport and logistics significance. Bioindication data testify to the critical state of its environment in places of high transport load and industrial congestion and to a significant deviation from the norm when moving away from the park zone. This requires the development of additional measures aimed at minimizing the impact of environmental risks on the population.