Pollution of atmospheric particulate matter carrying heavy metals has posed a great threat to various ecosystem compartments. Here, a total of 540 samples from four ecosystem compartments (plant leaves, foliar dust, surface soil, and subsoil) were collected in urban soil-plant systems to characterize the heavy metal concentration and composition of foliar dust, to verify the suitability of foliar dust as an environmental monitor, and to explore the importance of foliar dust in shaping the heavy metal composition in plant leaves. We found that the concentrations of all detected elements (lead, zinc, copper, chromium, nickel, and manganese) in foliar dust were the highest among the four ecosystem compartments. The mass of element per unit leaf area, considering both the dust retention amount and the heavy metal concentration of foliar dust, had significant positive correlations with the degree of heavy metal pollution in soil. Foliar dust could reflect ambient elemental composition most reliably among the four ecosystem compartments. The above findings show that foliar dust is more suitable for environmental monitoring than soil and plant materials in urban areas. In addition, the elemental composition of plant leaves differed significantly with different soil-plant systems although species identity dominated the leaf elemental composition. The variation partitioning model and the partial correlation analysis confirm that foliar dust plays a more important role in shaping the elemental composition of plant leaves than soil. This study provides a new way for environmental pollution monitoring and contributes to a comprehensive understanding of atmospheric particulate matter.

携带重金属的大气颗粒物污染对各种生态系统构成了巨大威胁。在这里，在城市土壤-植物系统中收集了来自四个生态系统区室（植物叶片、叶尘、表层土壤和底土）的 540 个样品，以表征叶尘的重金属浓度和组成，以验证叶尘的适宜性。灰尘作为环境监测器，并探索叶面灰尘在塑造植物叶片中重金属成分方面的重要性。我们发现叶尘中所有检测到的元素（铅、锌、铜、铬、镍和锰）的浓度在四个生态系统分区中最高。单位叶面积的元素质量，同时考虑粉尘滞留量和叶面粉尘的重金属浓度，与土壤重金属污染程度呈显着正相关。在四个生态系统隔间中，叶尘可以最可靠地反映环境元素组成。上述研究结果表明，在城市地区，叶面粉尘比土壤和植物材料更适合环境监测。此外，尽管物种特征在叶片元素组成中占主导地位，但植物叶片的元素组成在不同的土壤-植物系统中存在显着差异。变异划分模型和偏相关分析证实，与土壤相比，叶尘在塑造植物叶片的元素组成方面起着更重要的作用。该研究为环境污染监测提供了一种新途径，有助于全面了解大气颗粒物。