Monitoring Air Quality with Transplanted Bryophytes in a Neotropical Andean City

Abstract

Air pollution is one of the main global environmental problems, where bryophytes, due to their high capacity to retain metals and other pollutants, have been widely used in active air quality monitoring studies in temperate and tropical zones. Thus, in this study, we analyzed for the first time the concentrations of eight metals (cadmium, copper, nickel, aluminum, iron, manganese, lead and zinc) in three species of transplanted mosses (Rhacocarpus purpurascens (Brid.) Paris, Sphagnum sp. and Thuidium delicatulum (Hedw.) Schimp.) from Ecuador. Significant differences were found for the three species in the concentrations of Al, Mn, Fe and Zn between urban and control areas, pointing to the Central zone as the main source of contamination with the highest concentrations of Al, Fe, Mn and Zn, related to vehicular traffic. Lead did not differ between zones for Rhacocarpus purpurascens and Sphagnum sp.; however, Thuidium delicatulum accumulated different concentrations between urban areas and the control areas. The three species of mosses provided valuable information on the contamination of Al, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn in the urban area of the city of Loja, and therefore can be used in future air quality monitoring programs over time in tropical cities.

Epiphytic Cryptogams as Bioindicators of Air Quality in a Tropical Andean City

“…We obtained vehicular traffic with punctual one-day sampling data related with the number of vehicles for each zone. We considered three different categories: (LV) = light-vehicles: cars and small vans; (HV) = heavy-vehicles: trucks and buses; and (MT) = motorbikes [38].…”

Photosynthesis-related Parameters in Leucobryum aduncum Moss Bags as Bioindicators of Environmental Stress Caused by Road Traffic

“…Terrestrial mosses are among the most effective bioindicators/biomonitors of air pollution. They are sensitive to air pollution [1,16] and are great bioaccumulators of atmospheric deposition [17][18][19][20][21]. They have no root system and rely largely on the atmosphere for water and minerals (including pollutants).…”

“…Secondly, the active biomonitoring technique involves the use of moss transplants or moss bags. It is widely used in areas where the targeted mosses are rarely found and insufficient in the study area, such as highly urban and industrial areas [17][18]23]. The active technique has some advantages over the passive one: i) it can be used in areas where the native mosses are scarce or insufficient, ii) the exposure time is known, and iii) it allows air monitoring at high resolution such that the mosses can be placed in areas as much as needed.…”

Schinus molle como refugio para la diversidad de criptógamas epífitas indicadores de contaminación del aire en Quito, Ecuador

“…Sin embargo, hasta la fecha no se ha realizado un monitoreo de la calidad del aire usando la especie Schinus molle como único árbol hospedador donde crecen las criptógamas epífitas, a pesar de que la especie es muy abundante en varias ciudades urbanas. Además, a nivel de país existen pocos estudios enfocados en usar criptógamas epífitas como indicadoras de la calidad del aire, por ejemplo, en la ciudad de Loja se han realizado estudios orientados a utilizar la diversidad (Ochoa-Jiménez et al, 2015), monitoreo pasivo (Benítez et al, 2019) y monitoreo activo (Benítez et al, 2021). Así mismo, en la ciudad de Ambato Díaz et al ( 2021) utiliza la diversidad de líquenes y briófitos como indicadores de la calidad del aire.…”