Comparison of the moss Pleurozium schreberi with needles and bark of Pinus sylvestris as biomonitors of pollution by industry in Stalowa Wola (southeast Poland)

Content of Heavy Metals in Needles of Scots Pine (Pinus Sylvestris L.) in Selected Pine Forests in Słowiński National Park

“…2). Similar volumes of zinc were found in the needles of Ps in Poland: from 35 to 72 mg·kg -1 (1-year-old needles) and from 41 to 99 mg·kg -1 (2-year-old needles) in Świętokrzyski National Park [17], from 31 to 61 mg·kg -1 (1-year-old needles) and from 45 to 99 mg·kg -1 (2-year-old needles) in Stalowa Wola [28], from 40.9 to 173.7 mg·kg -1…”

“…In 1-year-old needles, the Cu concentration was maintained at the level from 5.7 to 6.9 mg·kg d.m in 2-year-old needles [17], within the area of Stalowa Wola from 5.0 to 8.6 mg·kg -1 (1-years-old needles) and from 4.7 to 7.8 mg·kg -1 (2-year-old needles), [28], and in Białowieża Primeval Forest from 2.92 to 3.85 mg·kg -1 [3]. In the coniferous forest of SNP, as in ŚNP and Stalowa Wola, a small predominance of the copper content in 1-year-old needles in comparison with 2-year-old needles (Tab.…”

“…The most sensitive ones are used in biomonitoring. Pinus sylvestris is a species which is little sensitive to infl uence of most heavy metals, however their concentration in needles of the species represents close correlations to the concentration of heavy metals in the air [2,12,13,15,18,28,37]. Analysis of heavy metals content in needles of Pinus sylvestris can constitute a basis for the evaluation of air pollution with heavy metals.…”

Tree Bark, a valuable source of information on air quality

“…Thus, bark samples for research from a given area should be collected from specimens of the same species at a similar age as determined by measuring tree height and circuit diameter at chest height [19][20]. Furthermore, an important argument for using bark in air monitoring is the lack of sampling influence on tree health status [26,[29][30].…”

“…Assessing air quality based on plants can be done using two methods: analysing impurities accumulated by the plant and using the plant to observe changes (usually unfavourable) in the morphology or physiology of plants caused by pollutants, thus related to ecotoxicology [13,[19][20]. In a study of air quality, lichens and mosses are the most frequently used bioindicators, individual species of which can point directly to the degree of contamination, and special scales have been developed for such species [1,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Mosses and lichens may occur in all studied locations, but higher plants are often selected as suitable bioindicators.…”