First-Time Source Apportionment Analysis of Deposited Particulate Matter from a Moss Biomonitoring Study in Northern Greece

Abstract

Moss biomonitoring is a widely used technique for monitoring the accumulation of trace elements in airborne pollution. A total of one hundred and five samples, mainly of the Hypnum cupressiforme Hedw. moss species, were collected from the Northern Greece during the 2015/2016 European ICP Vegetation (International Cooperative Program on Effects of Air Pollution on Natural Vegetation and Crops) moss survey, which also included samples from the metalipherous area of Skouries. They were analyzed by means of neutron activation analysis, and the elemental concentrations were determined. A positive matrix factorization (PMF) model was applied to the results obtained for source apportionment. According to the PMF model, five sources were identified: soil dust, aged sea salt, road dust, lignite power plants, and a Mn-rich source. The soil dust source contributed the most to almost all samples (46% of elemental concentrations, on average). Two areas with significant impact from anthropogenic activities were identified. In West Macedonia, the emissions from a lignite power plant complex located in the area have caused high concentrations of Ni, V, Cr, and Co. The second most impacted area was Skouries, where mining activities and vehicular traffic (probably related to the mining operations) led to high concentrations of Mn, Ni, V, Co, Sb, and Cr.

Dust Criteria Derived from Long-Term Filter and Online Observations at Gosan in South Korea

“…Heavy metals have been used to diagnose different types of urban dust (soil dust mixed with anthropogenic species) in Central China using principal component analysis (PCA) [28]. For large measurement sets, positive matrix factorization (PMF) is a powerful tool for quantitatively identifying various sources [29]. For those with fewer parameters, non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) can also be used for aerosol source identification [30].…”

Source Apportionment of Particulate Matter in Urban Snowpack Using End-Member Mixing Analysis and Positive Matrix Factorization Model

“…Traditionally, the time-series and spatial data on chemical composition of PM are used for source apportionment. Thus, the most common way to improve the data quality is to increase the temporal [36,42,43] or spatial [44,45] resolution of PM sampling. In recent times, the online measurement of aerosol composition using high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometers is used to obtain high-quality input data for PMF [46,47].…”