Biomonitoring of atmospheric pollution by moss bags: discriminating urban-rural structure in a fragmented landscape

Publication date: 1 Apr 2016

JournalSource: LEGACY

In this paper we investigated the possibility to use moss bags to detect pollution inputs - metals, metalloids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - in sites chosen for their different land use (agricultural, urban/residential scenarios) and proximity to roads (sub-scenarios), in a fragmented conurbation of Campania (southern Italy). We focused on thirty-nine elements including rare earths. For most of them, moss uptake was higher in agricultural than in urban scenarios and in front road sites. Twenty PAHs were analyzed in a subset of agricultural sites; 4- and 5-ringed PAHs were the most abundant, particularly chrysene, fluoranthene and pyrene. Overall results indicated that investigated pollutants have a similar spatial distribution pattern over the entire study area, with road traffic and agricultural practices as the major diffuse pollution sources. Moss bags proved a very sensitive tool, able to discriminate …

Publisher
Pergamon
Origin
Chemosphere
Legacy ID
70710f3b2e3df5ed7b05696ed3f38b53
Biblio references
Volume: 149 Pages: 211-218