Use of moss (Tortula muralis Hedw.) for monitoring organic and inorganic air pollution in urban and rural sites in Northern Italy

Gerdol, Renato; Bragazza, Luca; Marchesini, Roberta; Medici, Alessandro; Pedrini, Paola; Benedetti, S. De; Bovolenta, A.; Coppi, Simona

doi:10.1016/s1352-2310(02)00298-4

Cited by 101 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 24 publications

(14 reference statements)

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“…This trend is particularly evident at sites in Naples. These findings are consistent with those obtained by Gerdol et al (2002) who reported a greater fraction of volatile PAHs in Tortula muralis from rural compared to urban sites. Several studies report a shift of PAH profiles, dominated by those with smaller ring numbers, with increasing distance from PAH emission sources both in mosses (Dołęgowska and Migaszewsk, 2011;Gałuszka 2007;Migaszewski et al 2009) and in leaves .…”

Section: Comparison Among Biomonitorssupporting

confidence: 93%

Active Biomonitoring of Heavy Metals and PAHs with Mosses and Lichens: a Case Study in the Cities of Naples and London

Vingiani

Nicola

Purvis

et al. 2015

Water Air Soil Pollut

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Mosses and lichens are widely used to detect changes in the environmental concentrations of potential contaminants. Several studies have shown the usefulness of transplanted mosses and/or lichens to monitor air depositions of inorganic and organic pollutants at different scales. Here, we present the results of a biomonitoring study carried out in two cities, London (United Kingdom) and Naples (Italy), using four biomonitors (two lichens and two mosses). The lichens, Pseudevernia furfuracea (L.) Zopf var. furfuracea and Parmelia sulcata Taylor, and mosses, Sphagnum capillifolium (Ehrh.) Hedw. and Hypnum cupressiforme Hedw., were exposed in bags in urban streets of Naples and London and in semi-rural and rural areas. Samples were analysed for Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, V and Zn by atomic absorption spectrometry after acid digestion and for 16 EPA polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry after matrix solid-phase dispersion. For heavy metals, the comparison between the selected mosses indicated that, in all exposure sites, S. capillifolium had a better accumulation performance than H. cupressiforme, whereas for the lichens, it was P. furfuracea which accumulated higher concentrations of metals. Also for total PAHs, S. capillifolium showed a good accumulation capability compared to the other biomonitors investigated, especially compared to H. cupressiforme. It was observed an increasing heavy metal and PAH uptake by biomonitors from rural to urban sites, in both cities.

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Section: Comparison Among Biomonitorssupporting

confidence: 93%

Active Biomonitoring of Heavy Metals and PAHs with Mosses and Lichens: a Case Study in the Cities of Naples and London

Vingiani

Nicola

Purvis

et al. 2015

Water Air Soil Pollut

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“…These authors detected positive values for conurbations with high NO x emissions, slightly negative values for areas with low traffic and strongly negative values for rural regions with dominating NH 3 emissions. Similar findings were made by Gerdol et al (2002) using the ubiquitous moss Tortula muralis. In a recent study Solga et al (2005) found significant correlations between the ratio of NH 4 -N to NO 3 -N in deposition and the δ 15 N of two different moss species.…”

Section: N Natural Abundancesupporting

confidence: 82%

A new approach to Assess Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition by Way of Standardized Exposition of mosses

Solga

Burkhardt

Frahm

2006

Environ Monit Assess

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A standardized method of moss exposition for assessing variations in nitrogen deposition was tested in the western part of Germany. Six pleurocarpous moss species were transplanted to two sites differing in their deposition rates but being comparable as to their climatic conditions. The mosses were exposed in standardized containers over a period of 12 months; the focus of interest was the effect of N deposition on nitrogen content and on (15)N natural abundance (delta(15)N-values). Within the first nine months only trends could be observed. However, after one year all species tested showed significantly higher N concentrations at the highly polluted site. Besides, more negative delta(15)N-values possibly reflecting the higher ammonium input were detected at this site. Surprisingly, most of the plants though being kept in plastic containers without a favourable substratum did not show any conspicuous deficiency symptoms. The potential advantages of a standardized moss exposition for N monitoring purposes are discussed. It is concluded that the method presented here can yield significant results in particular if the number of testing sites is increased.

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“…This result is different from the previous findings in European studies. For example, studies by Pearson et al [2000] in the London area and Gerdol et al [2002] in northern Italy found that moss δ 15 N values were higher in urban areas than in rural areas. They attributed the relatively positive signatures of urban mosses to urban traffic NO x whereas the relatively negative signatures of rural mosses were attributed to the rural animal NH y .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mosses Indicating Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition and Sources in the Yangtze River Drainage Basin, China

et al. 2010

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[1] Characterizing the level and sources of atmospheric N deposition in a large-scale area is not easy when using physical monitoring. In this study, we attempted to use epilithic mosses (Haplocladium microphyllum (Hedw.)) as a bioindicator. A gradient of atmospheric N deposition from 13.8 kg N ha −1 yr −1 to 47.7 kg N ha −1 yr −1 was estimated on the basis of moss tissue N concentrations and the linear equation between them. The estimated results are reliable because the highest atmospheric N deposition occurred in the middle parts of the Yangtze River, where the highest TN concentrations were also observed. Moss d 15 N values in cities and forests were found in distinctly different ranges of approximately −10‰ to −6‰ and approximately −2‰ to 2‰, respectively, indicating that the main N sources in most of these cities were excretory wastes and those in forests were soil emissions. A negative correlation between moss d 15 N values and the ratios of NH 4 -N/NO 3 -N in deposition (y = −1.53 x + 1.78) has been established when the ratio increased from 1.6 to 6.5. On the basis of the source information, the negative moss d 15 N values in this study strongly indicate that NH y -N is the dominant N form in N deposition in the whole drainage basin. These findings are supported by the existing data of chemical composition of local N deposition.

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Use of moss (Tortula muralis Hedw.) for monitoring organic and inorganic air pollution in urban and rural sites in Northern Italy

Cited by 101 publications

References 24 publications

Active Biomonitoring of Heavy Metals and PAHs with Mosses and Lichens: a Case Study in the Cities of Naples and London

Active Biomonitoring of Heavy Metals and PAHs with Mosses and Lichens: a Case Study in the Cities of Naples and London

A new approach to Assess Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition by Way of Standardized Exposition of mosses

Mosses Indicating Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition and Sources in the Yangtze River Drainage Basin, China

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