Research of Mosses Accumulation Properties Used for Assessment of Regional and Local Atmospheric Pollution

Abstract

The monitoring of atmospheric heavy metal and other toxic element depositions by using widespread bryophytes as biomonitors has been widely used. Choosing most appropriate moss species in relation to their accumulation properties is the main goal of this research. The accumulation of heavy metals and other toxic elements by widespread mosses of midland have been studied. The research is focused on assessing accumulation properties of 4 species of terrestrial moss, 4 species of paludal moss and 2 species of epiphytic moss. The concentrations of 32 elements have been determined in moss samples by neutron activation analysis (NAA) and atom emission spectrometry (AES). Interspecies and intraspecies comparison revealed significant differences in accumulation properties. The accumulation capacity of Dicranum polysetum was higher than other terrestrial mosses and Aulacomnium palustre had higher accumulation capacity than other paludal mosses. These moss species have been used for monitoring atmospheric pollutants in an immense territory, particularly for research of transboundary transfer of heavy metal pollution. The accumulation property of epiphytic moss was higher than others. The epiphytic moss could be found on the bark of old trees (aspens, poplars, birch) that are of frequent occurrence in urban areas. Therefore, epiphytic moss can be used for monitoring atmospheric pollutants in an immense territory and for research of atmospheric pollution in industrial centers, inhabited locations as well as assessment of atmospheric contamination in local pollution source.

Assessment of Present-Day Heavy Metals Pollution and Factors Controlling Surface Water Chemistry of Three Western Siberian Sphagnum-Dominated Raised Bogs

“…The increase in heavy metals in bog vegetation in remote areas was associated with the long-range transport of pollution noted in [4,41], or in connection with low pH and, accordingly, with dissolution in water and the availability of heavy metals to vegetation [5,73]. A comparison with the data for Sphagnum angustifolium and Sphagnum squarrosum [55] showed lower heavy metal content in the bogs we studied, although the Zn content was very close. Similar Cu content in Chamaedaphne calyculata was found in [58].…”

“…In general, research indicates an increase in the dust-aerosol mass in the air, the volume of which in the troposphere has almost doubled over the past hundred years [51]. Recently the most important sources of heavy metals in the atmosphere within the south-eastern part of Western Siberia have been fires, coal mining, oil and gas production, chemical and petrochemical industries, ferrous and non-ferrous metal smelting and refining, transport, and waste incineration [48,50,[52][53][54][55][56]. The latest research suggests that ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy is a source of Pb, Cu, Zn and Cd in atmospheric pollution [41,57,58].…”

“…The anthropogenic load is unevenly distributed in the Tomsk region. The largest volume of emissions originates from the oil and gas industry in the north and north-western part of Western Siberia (Tomsk region, Tumen region) [53,54], the petrochemical industry and the thermal power plants in the south (Tomsk and Seversk) [48,55]. The south-eastern part of Tomsk region is the most urbanised, because Tomsk city, with more than half of the region's population and large industrial enterprises, is located there [50].…”

Comparison of Exposure Techniques and Vitality Assessment of Mosses in Active Biomonitoring for Their Suitability in Assessing Heavy Metal Pollution in Atmospheric Aerosol

“…At the same time, attention is paid to the influence of environmental factors (Motyka et al, 2015), different orientations of moss bags (Dharmasiri & Deeyamulla, 2013), or the location of samples (Rogova et al, 2018) on the final result of elemental concentration in mosses. In passive biomonitoring, D. polysetum had the highest accumulation capacity (compared, e.g., to P. schreberi ), which has ample rhizoid felt and dense structure of bunches that probably increases the retention of polluting components (Ryzhakova et al, 2014). The impossibility of comparing the results obtained by two different methods of monitoring atmospheric aerosol contamination was shown by Kosior et al (2015).…”

The Application of Active Biomonitoring with the Use of Mosses to Identify Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in an Atmospheric Aerosol

“…The species used for this study were the mosses P. schreberi, S. fallax and D. polysetum , which are used in biomonitoring studies [ 67 , 68 , 69 ], including PAH contamination [ 51 ]. They were collected in October 2020 from forests in the Swietokrzyskie Voivodship in southeastern Poland, which can be considered a clean background site.…”