Scientists' Contributions

Active Biomonitoring with lichen and moss species - fast method for assessment of atmospheric pollution

Lilyana Yurukova

Institute of Botany, BAS, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Active biomonitoring using collectors with dead material of mosses and lichens is a world-wide used method for detecting and controlling atmospheric pollution in background, urban and industrial areas. The moss-bags and lichen-bags techniques has been found useful in test sites where naturally growing plant species are not regularly grown and the pollutant levels are relatively high. The main advantage of using these techniques is a well defined exposure time. This kind of the active biomonitoring was used for an assessment of atmospheric wet and dry deposition of heavy metals around a copper smelter in Bulgaria. The heavy metals have been determined by atomic emission spectrometry (AES) with inductively coupled plasma (ICP) after wet-ashed procedure. Analytical quality control was assured by standard plant reference material CRM 281. The comparison between lichen-bags and moss-bags modification was made. During the spring of 2000 no relatively high levels of airborne heavy metals around the smelter was found.