Heavy metals and radioactive nuclide concentrations in mosses in Greece

Betsou, Chrysoula; Tsakiri, Evdoxia; Kazakis, Nerantzis; Hansman, Jan; Krmar, M.; Frontasyeva, M. V.; Ioannidou, A.

doi:10.1080/10420150.2018.1528611

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Measured 210 Pb activities are high in view of recent literature, even higher than around some coal-fired power plants ( 56 , 57 ), but not as high as reported for some locations in Bosnia and Herzegovina ( 55 ) and Greece ( 47 ). 210 Pb in the atmosphere is the result of the leakage of 222 Rn from soil and 210 Pb indicates the presence of 222 Rn in the air.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 60%

Radiological impact of an active quarry in the Papuk Nature Park, Croatia

Petrinec

Rašeta

Babić

2022

Archives of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology

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Papuk Nature Park, unlike most similar parks and preserves in the world, contains active quarries. Quarries dig stone from the ground, creating dust and exposing deeper, potentially more radioactive layers. Since the forest trails in the Park lead right up to the quarries, we believed it was important to determine the radiological impact of the quarries on the Park environment. We measured ambient dose rate equivalent H*(10) and sampled moss at 26 Park locations along two of four quarries, along the road between them, and near Lake Orahovac, a very popular tourist destination close to the quarries. Moss is a standard bioindicator of exposure to heavy metals, including radionuclides. Using-gamma ray spectrometry we determined the activity concentration of 137Cs and of representative naturally occurring radionuclides – 238U, 226Ra, 210Pb, 232Th, and 40K – in sampled moss. H*(10) at selected locations was similar to the background H*(10) measured continuously all over Croatia. The ranges of measured activity concentrations of 137Cs and naturally occurring radionuclides in moss did not differ significantly from other parts of Croatia and nearby countries.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 60%

Radiological impact of an active quarry in the Papuk Nature Park, Croatia

Petrinec

Rašeta

Babić

2022

Archives of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology

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“…In the below listing, the data refer to the situation extrapolated to 2018, calculated by taking into account the radioactive decay, original values, and the elapsed time. The A of 137 Cs in mosses from the Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia was in the range 25–1460 Bq kg −1 (sampled in 2011–2012) 23 , in Armenia 3–300 Bq kg −1 (2018–2020) 29 , in Austria 870–10,680 Bq kg −1 (2006) 27 , in Greece 0–400 Bq kg −1 (2016) 18 , in Turkey 30–360 Bq kg 1 (2007) 25 , and in Serbia 6–65 Bq kg −1 (2008) 28 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to their strong absorption and retention of airborne substances 15 – 17 , and in spite of additional pathways of the absorption of matter, mosses have been recognised as reliable biomonitors for atmospheric pollution. This has been used worldwide to monitor environmental stress caused by numerous non-radioactive 18 – 22 and radioactive 9 , 18 , 22 – 29 elements. Since mosses appear in different habitats, they have been for a long time used to record the dynamics of pollution within small areas such as industrial zones 30 – 32 , cities 14 , 33 or motorways 34 , 35 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regarding naturally occurring radionuclides, mosses have been used mostly in studies on 7 Be 18 , 28 and 210 Pb 9 , 18 , 22 , 23 , 28 due to their abundance in the air. From the radioecological point of view, however, 7 Be is of no particular interest, because it is just one of cosmogenic radionuclides—the production of which depends solely on the influx of cosmic rays on Earth 41 and not on any human activity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mosses in the Kopački Rit Nature Park, Croatia, as bioindicators of a potential radioactive contamination of the middle Danube River basin

Petrinec

Babić

Meštrović

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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We studied activity concentrations of radionuclides in the Kopački Rit Nature Park using mosses as bioindicators. This area of intact nature is at the tripoint of Croatia, Hungary, and Serbia, being located basically at the centre of the middle Danube River basin. Therefore, it can be easily affected by airborne pollution from various locations in the Middle Europe and beyond. The goal of our research was to assess whether the Park could serve as a location where any new radioactive contamination could be sensitively detected, which implied a necessity for low activity concentrations at the present time. Our gamma-ray spectrometry revealed the presence of only one anthropogenic gamma emitter, that is, 137Cs. Its activity concentration in the mosses ranged from 0.7 to 13.1 Bq kg−1, being low indeed. Another radionuclide in our focus was 210Pb. Generally, its elevated concentrations may signify ecologically undesirable human activities that involve naturally occurring radioactive matter. The activity concentration of 210Pb in the mosses was in the range from 183 to 690 Bq kg−1. This did not depart from the results of other similar studies and was again low enough for a detection of possible excess amounts of this radionuclide in the future.

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“…Mosses were first used as biomonitors of the atmospheric fallout in the Scandinavian countries [16][17][18][19]. They have no rooting system; all the necessary elements and water are obtained directly through wet and dry deposition, while some trace amounts of nutrients may also come from the soil [11,[20][21][22][23][24][25]. They grow up slowly and they can provide information about the atmospheric fallout over a long time of exposure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2021

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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.

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Heavy metals and radioactive nuclide concentrations in mosses in Greece

Cited by 6 publications

References 22 publications

Radiological impact of an active quarry in the Papuk Nature Park, Croatia

Radiological impact of an active quarry in the Papuk Nature Park, Croatia

Mosses in the Kopački Rit Nature Park, Croatia, as bioindicators of a potential radioactive contamination of the middle Danube River basin

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

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