Evaluation of air quality using lichens in three different types of forest in Korea

Abstract

There is little available information on lichen diversity and air quality in forests in South Korea. To address this, the present study aims to correlate corticolous lichen diversity with air quality in selected forests in South Korea. Two sites located on Jeju Island and one site located at Mt. Hambaek, Kangwon Province were selected for this study. Twenty trees representing two species (Quercus sp. and Pinus japonica) were chosen at each site. The coverage and frequency of corticolous lichens found on the selected trees were recorded by using 2500 cm 2 grids. Ambient SO 2 , NO 2 , and O 3 levels at each site were determined using Ogawa TM passive samplers having filter pads coated with absorbing reagents. Lichen diversity data collected on selected trees were used to formulate the index of atmospheric purity (IAP). A total of 65 lichen species were found. A negative correlation was observed between lichen diversity expressed as IAP and the concentrations of SO 2 , NO 2 , and O 3 levels. The results revealed that corticolous lichens could be used as indicators to monitor the air quality of forests in South Korea on a large scale.

Relationship between lichen diversity and air quality in urban region in Bourdj Bou Arriridj, Algeria

“…The results of IAP from our analysis are similar to those described in the literature; namely in Serbia (Stamenković et al 2010), Sri Lanka (Attanayaka and Wijeyaratne 2013), India (Das et al 2013), Korea (Jayalal et al 2015) and France (Dron et al 2016). On the other hand, in forest regions in France far from industrial sources, Agnan et al Statistical tests indicated a significant correlation between the values of the LDV indices and those of the IAP; they increase with increasing species diversity and abundance of lichens.…”

“…The same observations have been reported by several authors (Batic and Mayrhofer 1996;Cazaux and Saint-Cricq 2010;Das et al 2013;Agnan et al 2017;Khastini et al 2019). This diversity is influenced by important air humidity (Jayalal et al 2015). The rural locations of El Ach, Ksour, El Main, Tassameurt and Taglait have a low specific diversity, which is probably due to the presence of a significant amount of the resin on the trunks of phorophytes which poisons lichens (Agnés and Galinou 1993;Kirschbaum and Wirth 1997).…”

“…This heterogeneous distribution of epiphytic vegetation in the area studied is likely the result of alterations in atmospheric pollution and the ecological factors that play important role in the specific diversity of lichens (Jovan 2008;Das et al 2013;Jayalal et al 2015;Dron et al 2016;Khastini et al 2019). The overall average of the LDV index in the study area was low.…”

“…Bio-indication techniques have been established based on the composition of the lichenic flora (Sett and Kundu 2016), mainly the Shannon diversity index (H') (Shannon and Weaver 1964), the lichen diversity value index (LDV) (Asta et al 2002) and the atmospheric purity index (IAP) (LeBlanc and De Sloover 1970). These indices are used to estimate air pollution levels that affect lichen diversity (Van Haluwyn and Van Herk 2002;Krick and Loppi 2002;Svoboda 2007;Jayalal et al 2015;Agnan et al 2017), so that some environmental sources of pollution can be identified (Pinho et al 2004;Das et al 2013).…”

Correlation of atmospheric purity index to the diversity of lichens in the Horton Plains National Park, Sri Lanka

“…Traditionally, lichens flora have been used for monitoring air pollution from the 1860s (Nylander, 1866;James, 1973;Seaward et al, 1981;Garty and Hagemeyer, 1988;Brown, 1984;Sawidis et al, 1995;Nimis et al, 2002;Stamenkovic et al, 2010;Jayalal et al, 2015). Because of the lack of a cuticle and an epidermis, lichens accumulate air borne metals (Olmez et al, 1985), actively uptake anions and adsorb cations and ion exchange ions such as Na + and Ca 2+ passively (Nieboer and Richardson, 1981).…”