Use of Non Vascular Plant Organisms as Indicators of Urban Air Pollution (Tunja, Boyacá, Colombiano)

Abstract

Presentado el 6 de noviembre de 2013, aceptado el 4 de febrero de 2014, fecha de reenvío el 17 de febrero de 2014.Citation / Citar este artículo como: SIMIJACA-SALCEDO DF, VARGAS-ROJAS DL, MORALES-PUENTES ME. Uso de organismos vegetales no vasculares como indicadores de contaminación atmosférica urbana (Tunja, Boyacá, Colombia). Acta biol. Colomb. 2014;9(2):221-232. RESUMENLos líquenes y briófitos son organismos útiles en la determinación de la calidad del aire. En la ciudad de Tunja (departamento de Boyacá, Colombia), es evidente la escasez de zonas verdes por el aumento en las construcciones, lo que contribuye al detrimento de la pureza atmosférica y trae consigo el deterioro de la salud de la ciudadanía y la reducción de los hábitats y poblaciones de las plantas criptógamas. Mediante la determinación del Índice de Pureza Atmosférica (IPA) se identificaron las zonas con mayor influencia de contaminantes del aire. Parmotrema austrosinense corresponde a la especie más frecuencia; y la estación de la Normal Femenina, con IPA de 52,2196 es influenciada por los contaminantes atmosféricos; las estaciones de los Parques Santander y Semáforos son las más contaminadas (IPA 8,5333) con solo dos especies (Heterodermia albicans y Lobariaceae sp.). Se destaca la evaluación en la Reserva Forestal Protectora El Malmo con un IPA de 34,0281 y 23 especies. Los valores de IPA se agruparon en zonas de isocontaminación para ser representados cartográficamente. El uso de organismos bioindicadores es una estrategia natural y económica que permite zonificar las urbes y enfocar planes para revegetalización de ciudades, generando la disminución del impacto de contaminantes en el aire con el fin de mejorar la calidad de vida de los pobladores.Palabras clave: briófitos, contaminación, índice, líquenes, urbano. ABSTRACTLichens and bryophytes are useful organisms in air quality determination. In the city of Tunja (Boyacá, Colombia), is evident the lack of green areas by the increase of building, which contributes to the detriment of the atmospheric purity making unhealthy conditions to the citizens and habitats and population reduction of cryptogamic plants. Using the Index of Atmospheric Purity (IAP) we identified the greater influence air pollutants areas. Parmotrema austrosinense has the highest frequency; and the Normal Femenina station with an IAP of 52,2196 is an atmospheric pollutants influenced area; Parque

TheSticta filixmorphodeme (Ascomycota:Lobariaceae) in New Zealand with the newly recognized speciesS. dendroidesandS. menziesii: indicators of forest health in a threatened island biota?

“…New Zealand has a very rich assembly of Lobariaceae macrolichens, a family that has been identified as containing potentially excellent bioindicators of forest health (Rose 1974(Rose , 1976(Rose , 1992Galloway 1985Galloway , 1988Galloway , 1992Galloway , 2007Galloway , 2009Søchting & Christensen 1989;Gauslaa 1994;Selva 1994Selva , 1996Wolseley et al 1994;McCune 2000;Zedda 2002;Campbell & Fredeen 2004;Kalwij et al 2005;Jüriado & Liira 2009;Scheidegger 2009;Nascimbene et al 2010;Gustafsson et al 2013;Simijaca-Salcedo et al 2014;Cansaran-Duman et al 2015;Giorgio et al 2015;Ramírez-Morán et al 2016). However, despite the fact that New Zealand is currently regarded as the best studied area when it comes to the taxonomy of Lobariaceae (Galloway 2009), our results show that species delimitations are far from settled, which has implications for our understanding of species-level ecology.…”

“…In the tropics and the Southern Hemisphere, Lobariaceae have been used or mentioned as potential bioindicators of forest health based on studies in Cuba (Rosabal et al 2010), Colombia (Simijaca-Salcedo et al . 2014; Ramírez-Morán et al . 2016), French Guiana (Normann et al .…”

“…In the tropics and the Southern Hemisphere, Lobariaceae have been used or mentioned as potential bioindicators of forest health based on studies in Cuba (Rosabal et al 2010), Colombia (Simijaca-Salcedo et al 2014;Ramírez-Morán et al 2016), French Guiana (Normann et al 2010), Chile (Galloway 1992) and Thailand (Wolseley et al 1994). Despite a wealth of literature dealing with Lobariaceae (Galloway 1985(Galloway , 1988(Galloway , 2007 de Lange et al 2012; de Lange & Galloway 2015), New Zealand lags behind in using lichens (and especially Lobariaceae) for conservation monitoring (Galloway 2008; de Lange et al 2012).…”

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

“…However, there is only one air pollution monitoring station and few studies in this city, which has not made possible the accurate determination of the current state of the air quality in the different zones of city of Ambato [9]. Epiphytic cryptogams, due to their anatomical, morphological, and physiological characteristics (e.g., they obtain nutrients directly from the atmosphere) [10], are very effective as bioindicators of air pollution in many cities around the world [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], and also for programs and protocols of air pollution in several countries. These organisms allow early detection of signs of environmental change given that they are fully exposed to airborne contaminants [11,16,21].…”

“…Epiphytic cryptogams, due to their anatomical, morphological, and physiological characteristics (e.g., they obtain nutrients directly from the atmosphere) [10], are very effective as bioindicators of air pollution in many cities around the world [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], and also for programs and protocols of air pollution in several countries. These organisms allow early detection of signs of environmental change given that they are fully exposed to airborne contaminants [11,16,21]. Thus, the application of epiphytic cryptogams are a fast and low-cost method for this purpose.…”