Environment and elemental content of lichens

Keywords Lichens Elemental content Biomonitoring Air pollution Point emission sources Vehicular activity Large-scale surveys Remote areas 

The capability of lichens to accumulate different elements, inclusive of trace metals, is a distinctive feature, extensively documented in the 1970s and 1980s (James, 1973 Nieboer et al., 1977, 1978 Puckett and Burton, 1981 Martin and Coughtrey, 1982 Brown and Beckett, 1984, 1985a,b Lawrey, 1984 Arndt et al., 1987 Galun and Ronen, 1988 Puckett, 1988 Richardson, 1988 Nash, 1989 Tyler, 1989). 

In the 1990s this characteristic of lichens was reviewed by the following authors (Brown, 1991 Brown and Brown, 1991 Garty, 1992, 1993 Richardson, 1992 Nash, 1996 Jacquiot and Daillant, 1997). 

This chapter discusses selected articles dealing with the application of lichens as biomonitors of chemical elements in the environment. In the recent decade the relevant literature focused on the methods available to monitor effects of air pollution by means of in situ, resuspended or transplanted lichens in urban, industrial, rural and remote environments. These monitoring studies described spatial variations in the elemental content of lichens, relative to distance from natural or anthropogenic emission points apart from temporal fluctuations relative to climatic circumstances. 

Accumulation of chemical elements in lichens around point emission sources 

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Quevauviller Ph, Herzig R. and Muntau H (1996b) Certified reference material of lichen (CRM 482) for the quality control of trace element biomonitoring. Sci Total Environ 187 143-152 Quevauviller Ph, Lachica M., Barahona E, Rauret G, Ure A, Gomez A, and Muntau H (1997) The certification of the EDTA-extractable contents (mass fractions) of Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb, and Zn and of the DTPA-extractable contents (mass fractions) of Cd and Ni in calcareous soil by the extraction procedures given CRM 600. EUR Report 17555 Quevauviller Ph. Maier EA, and Griepink B, eds. (1995) Quality Assurance for Environmental Analysis. Elsevier. Amsterdam. 

Bargagli et al. (1997) performed a study which applied a method of passive biomonitoring of trace element deposition in urban, industrial and reference areas in Italy, especially in Tuscany, Veneto and Friuli, by means of epiphytic lichens, mainly P. caperata, P. sulcata and X. parietina. Despite the fact that the Pb content of gasoline in Italy was lowered from 0.4 to 0.15 g in 1991, samples of P. caperata collected in the urban environment of Siena still contained considerable amounts of Pb. The data presented in this study included average amounts of Al, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn in lichens from five urban areas in northern and central Italy, from the entire region of Veneto, Tuscany and from remote areas in Calabria. It was shown that the pattern of urban pollution was characterized to a great extent by high values of Al, Cd, Cu, Ni and Pb. Traffic appeared to play a prominent role as these metals are known to be released by vehicular activity. 

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