Heavy Metal Atmospheric Deposition Study in Azerbaijan Based on Moss Technique and Neutron Activation Analysis

Abstract

The results of this investigation show that Azerbaijan industries and agricultural sector provide considerable anthropogenic impact on the environment of Caucasus. The use of moss biomonitoring technique and neutron activation analysis (NAA) is a first attempt to study heavy metal atmospheric deposition in Azerbaijan, a country different relief and climate. The study was undertaken in the summer of 2015 of atmospheric deposition of man-made heavy metal pollutants in the area of mining and processing plant in Gadabay and Dashkasan mininig district. At the same time samples were collected from the Goygol State Reserve in the Lesser Caucasus not far from the city of Ganja. A total 85 moss samples (predominantly Pleurozium schreberi) collected in both environmentally contrast area. Elemental determination was carried out by epithermal neutron activation analysis (ENAA) at the reactor IBR-2 of Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (FLNP JINR). For the first time 44 elemental concentrations were determined (Na, Mg, Al, Si, Cl, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Br, Rb, Sr, Mo, Ag, Cd, In, Sb, I, Cs, Ba, La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb, Tm, Yb, Hf, Ta, W, Au, Th, U). Multivariate statistical analysis of the analytical results obtained will make it possible to identify the main sources of pollution and to assess the role of long-range transport of pollutants.

One-Year-Long, Comprehensive Analysis of PM Number and Mass Size Distributions in Warszawa (Poland)

“…This work demonstrates that even simple categorisation of mass size distributions by wind direction, without any atmospheric transport simulations, can give results that are the first step to distinguish sources. It is important to note that size distributions can be affected by the inflow from distant sources, as it was shown in [40,41]. Therefore, the source apportionment, related to the mass size distributions, can be developed but to improve the source apportionment a decomposition method, similar to Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) [42], has to be determined for size distributions.…”

Біріккен Ұлттар Ұйымының Бағдарламасы Туралы «Еуропадағы Ауыр Металдардың Атмосфералық Шөгінділері - Биомонитор Мүктерін Талдауға Негізделген Бағалаулар»

“…Силами Сектора НАА ЛНФ ОИЯИ были также проведены пилотные исследования в Центральной России (Тульская область [21], Тверская и Ярославская области [22]), на Западной Украине [23], в северной Сербии и Боснии [24], а в 2002 году -в Македонии [25] совместно со специалистами этих стран. В последующие годы число научных групп, сотрудничающих с ЛНФ ОИЯИ, существенно увеличилось: присоединились Хорватия [26], Греция [27,28], Албания [29], Италия, Нидерланды, Молдова [30], Монголия, Таджикистан [31], Турция [32]; Азербайджан [33], Армения [34], Беларусь [35], Грузия [36]; расширился круг участников в Российской Федерации: Московская [37], Владимирская, Ленинградская, Самарская [38], Рязанская, области, а также Южный Урал (Удмуртия) [39] и Северный Кавказ (Республика Ичкерия, Северная Осетия [40]). Кроме того, была проведена большая работа по привлечению в Программу научных групп нескольких университетов и средних школ к сбору мхов-биомониторов в тех регионах, где они находились.…”

The Genetic Diversity of Pleurozium schreberi: A Preliminary Study Based on the atpB-rbcL

“…This species was and is the object of many studies, i.e., [8][9][10][11]. In the literature, we can find studies of the growth and reproduction of this species [12,13], the influence of various factors on its acclimatization [8,[14][15][16], and biomonitoring studies [17][18][19][20][21]. There are little-known medical and ethnopharmacological reports on these particular usages for this species, and so further assessment is required in this area of study [22].…”