Lichens as biomonitors

The use of lower plants as biomonitors has recently been detailed. Garty (1993) has extensively reviewed the use of lichens as biomonitors the use of fungi has been reviewed by Mejstfik and Lepsova (1993) and by Wondratschek and Rfider (1993) and mosses as biomonitors have been discussed by Steinnes (1993) and by Brtining and Kreeb (1993) the effects of heavy metals on bryophytes has been reviewed by Tyler (1990). 

Bargagli R, Monaci F, Borghini F, Bravi F, Agnorelli C. 2002. Mosses and lichens as biomonitors of trace metals a comparison study on Hypneum cupressiforme and Parmelia caperata in a former mining district in Italy. Environ Pollut 116 279-287. 

The use of lichens as biomonitors for radio contamination assay rather than direct soil measurements is advantageous because they show high... 

Both instrumental NAA (INAA) and PIXE are available at the Instituto Tecnol6-gico e Nuclear (ITN), Sacavem, Portugal, and have been applied in a national study on atmospheric trace elements, using lichens as biomonitor materials. In the present paper, this survey is used to illustrate the potential of NATs in environmental studies. 

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. 

A comparable decrease of Pb content was reported by Deruelle (1996) who studied the reliability of lichens as biomonitors of Pb pollution in the Fontainebleau forest in... 

Garty, J., 1993. Lichens as biomonitors for heavy metal pollution. In Marker , B. (Ed.), Plants as Biomonitors, Indicators for Heavy Metals in the Terrestrial Environment. VCH Publishers, Weinheim, pp. 193-263. 

Jeran, Z., Byrne, A.R., Batic, F., 1995. Transplanted epiphytic lichen as biomonitors of air-contamination by natural radionuclides around the Zirovski VRH uranium mine, Slovenia. Lichenologist 27, 375-385. 

Minger, A., Krahenbuhl, U., 1997. Moss and lichen as biomonitors for heavy metals. Int. J. Environ. Anal. Chem. 67, 41 8. 

Nimis, P.L., Castello, M., Perotti, M., 1990. Lichens as biomonitors of sulphur dioxide pollution in La Spezia (Northern Italy). Lichenologist 22, 333-344. 

Sloof, J.E., Wolterbeek, H.Th., 1993, Interspecies comparison of lichens as biomonitors of trace-element air pollution. Environ. Monitor. Assess. 25, 149-157. 

The Use of Snow, Soil and Lichens as Biomonitors of Contaminants in Airborne Particulate Matter in North-Eastern European Russia... 

Loppi S, Riccobono F, Zhang ZH, Savic S, Ivanov D, Pirintsos SA (2003) Lichens as biomonitors of uranium in the Balkan area. Environ Pollution 125 277-280 Di Leila LA, Frati L, Loppi S, Protano G, Riccobono F (2003) Lichens as biomonitors of uranium and other trace elements in an area of Kosovo heavily shelled with depleted uranium rounds. Atmos Environ 37 5445-5449... 

Loppi, S. Bonini, I. 2000. Lichens and mosses as biomonitors of trace elements in areas with thermal springs and fumarolic activity (Mt. Amiata, Central Italy). Chemosphere, 41, 1333-1336. 

Loppi, S., De Dominicis, V., 1996. Lichens as long-term biomonitors of air quality in central Italy. Acta Bot. Neerland. 45, 563-570. 

Loppi, S., Cenni, E., Bussotti, F., Ferretti, M., 1997. Epiphytic lichens and tree leaves as biomonitors of trace elements released by geothermal power plants. Chem. Ecol. 14, 31-38. 

Sloof, J.E., 1995. Lichens as quantitative biomonitors for atmospheric trace-element deposition, using transplants. Atmosph. Environ. 29, 11-20. 

To evaluate the feasibility of the use of lichens as in situ biomonitors of atmospheric pollution in a semiarid climate, Rope and Pearson (1990) applied two techniques of evaluation in their study area in Idaho trace element analysis and electrolyte leakage from cells. The lichen Lecanora melanophthalma accumulated for the most part higher levels of elemental content than vascular plants such as Artemisia tridentata and either comparable or lower levels than soil. The above-mentioned lichen was the only species to show a significant difference in electrolyte leakage which could be associated with the distance from a chemical processing plant. 

Riga-Karandinos, A.N., Karandinos, M.G., 1998. Assessment of air pollution from a lignite power plant in the plain of Megalopolis (Greece) using as biomonitors three species of lichens impacts on some biochemical parameters of lichens. Sci. Total Environ. 215, 167-183. 

Rope, S.K., Pearson, L.C., 1990. Lichens as air pollution biomonitors in a semiarid environment in Idaho. Bryologist 93, 50-61. 

Spencer KL, Cundy AB, Croudace IW (2003) Heavy metal distribution and early-diagenesis in salt marsh sediments from the Medway Estuary, Kent, UK. Estuar Coast Shelf Sci 57 43-54 Spokes LJ, Jickells TD (2002) Speciation of metals in the atmospehre. In Ure AM, Davidson CM (eds) Chemical speciation in the environment. Blackwell Science Ltd, Oxford Szczepaniak K, Biziuk M (2003) Aspects of the biomonitoring studies using mosses and lichens as indicators of metal pollution. Environ Res 93(3) 221-230 Townsend AT, Snape I (2002) The use of Pb isotope ratios determined by magnetic sector ICP-MS for tracing Pb pollution in marine sediments near Casey Station, East Antarctica. J Anal At Spectrom 17 922-928... 

Organisms can serve as indicators of various kinds of pollutants, thus serving as biomonitors. For example, higher plants, fimgi, lichens, and mosses can be important biomonitors for heavy-metal pollutants in the environment. 

IAEA efforts related to both CRMs and others, such as hair for total mercury and methyl mercury (prepared in India), and lichen for multi-element certification (prepared in Portugal) to assist biomonitoring programs in Brazil, Chile, China, Czech Republic, India, Italy, Malaysia, Slovenia, and Vietnam,... 

Lichens Usnea aurantiacoatra and Usnea antarctica) could be useful as monitors to evaluate the Antarctic ecosystem and to identify patterns of the deposition of atmospherically transported heavy metals. Thus, it would be possible to study variations in the spatial distribution of these elements not only at the local, but also at the regional scale. Knowing the effect of the different local and regional growth rates and evaluating metal contents of the soil, it would be possible to perform metal biomonitoring in different zones of Antarctica and of the southern hemisphere. 

Lichens are currently monitored to aid the control of air pollution and to follow changes in pollution patterns [20,21], Lichens are found almost everywhere and accumulate trace elements from the atmosphere therefore they are often used as a practical means for biomonitoring pollution [22,23]. The collection and analysis of... 

Mosses and lichens have been used as bioaccumulators to biomonitor environmental Al, which generally derives from soil. Al in plant leaves and bark, feathers, invertebrates and vertebrates has been less commonly studied. 

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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