Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
Journals
Pollutants
Special Issues
Surveys and Case Studies in Biomonitoring of Atmospheric Pollution
share announcement

Surveys and Case Studies in Biomonitoring of Atmospheric Pollution

A special issue of Pollutants (ISSN 2673-4672). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Pollution".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 5526

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Simonetta Giordano

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biology, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, 80126 Napoli, Italy
Interests: biomonitoring of air quality; bioaccumulation of pollutants; plant-environment interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Valeria Spagnuolo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biology, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, 80126 Napoli, Italy
Interests: phytoremediation; plant biomonitoring; plant response to abiotic stress; plant biodiversity along environmental gradients
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Fiore Capozzi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biology, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, 80126 Napoli, Italy
Interests: plants as biomonitors of air quality; phytoremediation; factors influencing plant growth in a space environment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is devoted to the publication of contributions presented at the 9th Biomap, a workshop on the biomonitoring of atmospheric pollution held in Napoli (Italy) on 3–5 October 2022 (https://biomap9.azuleon.org/welcome).

Persistent pollutants, such as heavy metals, PAHs, dioxins and microplastics, accumulate in the environment as a consequence of natural and anthropogenic activities, contaminating the air, water bodies, sediments and soil. These contaminants pass from the abiotic component of ecosystems to the biotic component, along the food chain to humans, causing serious damage to both environmental and human health.

Atmospheric pollution is recognized as a crucial issue on a global scale; however, air-monitoring networks based on physico-chemical devices are still undeveloped, due to the high costs and application constraints. Moreover, the variability in air pollution patterns underline the urgency to set up feasible methodologies to carry out extensive screening of air pollutants. In this respect, the biomonitoring approach represents a valuable tool to detect the presence of inorganic and organic pollutants in the air that are not routinely monitored by conventional devices.

Therefore, biomonitoring of the environment, by using organisms that strictly depend on atmospheric inputs through standardized methodologies, represents a crucial tool that can be used to assess the presence of pollutants in indoor and outdoor environments and is an essential prerequisite to plan mitigating actions at a local level.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect original contributions that are focused on surveys and case studies on the biomonitoring of atmospheric pollution.

Prof. Dr. Simonetta Giordano
Prof. Dr. Valeria Spagnuolo
Dr. Fiore Capozzi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pollutants is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bioindicators
  • bioaccumulators
  • organic pollutants
  • potentially toxic elements
  • microplastics
  • PM
  • ionizing radiation
  • radon
  • ozone

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

14 pages, 2285 KiB  
Article
Metal Ions, Element Speciation Forms Retained on Wet Chitin: Quantitative Aspects of Adsorption and Implications for Biomonitoring and Environmental Technology
by Stefan Fränzle
Pollutants 2023, 3(3), 337-350; https://doi.org/10.3390/pollutants3030023 - 06 Jul 2023
Viewed by 735
Abstract
Analyses of mosses and lichens provide some information on the contents of both particulate and dissolved (from hydrometeors including snow and flooding) metal ions and other elements like As and Sb in the local environment. However, this information is compromised by rarity (and [...] Read more.
Analyses of mosses and lichens provide some information on the contents of both particulate and dissolved (from hydrometeors including snow and flooding) metal ions and other elements like As and Sb in the local environment. However, this information is compromised by rarity (and thus duly legal protection) of suitable species (particularly lichens) for regular sampling and also by poorly understood mechanisms of binding. Hence, it is crucial to find an alternative that does not harm or kill rare and/or protected organisms for sampling purposes while providing data that can be traced to environmental levels (e.g., metal ions in water) in a comprehensible way. Studying the coordination of aq. metal ions on some biogenic surface which can form ligating bonds to these ions provides such information. The most abundant and thus cheap such biopolymer acting as both a possible ligand and a water- (or environment-)biomass interface is chitin. Data from chitin exposed in either water, common sandy sediments, and ferric gels delivered by Fe-oxidizing bacteria are processed to understand adsorption in quantitative terms depending on local conditions, accounting for observed BCFs >> 1 for certain elements (Bi, V, LREEs). Slopes of functions that describe the increase of retention of some element upon increasing aq. concentrations allow us to construct (a) some function giving BCF by numerical integration, (b) predict the behavior of other elements for which certain parameters guiding complex formation are known as well. It turns out that top sensitivities (maximum BCF- or partition factor) values are reached with different elements depending on the environment the chitin sample was exposed to. PF can extend the detection and determination of many elements below levels directly observable in water or sediments. The detection of fallout radionuclides on chitin is even more sensitive (by a factor of 20–25) because of omitting dilution in workup by direct observation of γ radiation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surveys and Case Studies in Biomonitoring of Atmospheric Pollution)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

12 pages, 1333 KiB  
Article
Influence of Precipitation on the Spatial Distribution of 210Pb, 7Be, 40K and 137Cs in Moss
by Kayla Wilkins, Hazel Cathcart, Padraig Hickey, Olwyn Hanley, Luis León Vintró and Julian Aherne
Pollutants 2023, 3(1), 102-113; https://doi.org/10.3390/pollutants3010009 - 06 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1198
Abstract
Mosses have been widely used as biomonitors of a variety of atmospheric pollutants, including radionuclides. Here we determine the radionuclide activity concentration of 210Pb, 137Cs, 7Be, and 40K in moss tissue (Hylocomium splendens) collected from 24 sites [...] Read more.
Mosses have been widely used as biomonitors of a variety of atmospheric pollutants, including radionuclides. Here we determine the radionuclide activity concentration of 210Pb, 137Cs, 7Be, and 40K in moss tissue (Hylocomium splendens) collected from 24 sites across Ireland and assess the influence of precipitation on radionuclide spatial distribution. Lead-210 was the most abundant radionuclide (range: 226–968 Bq kg–1), followed by 7Be (range: <DL—604 Bq kg–1), 40K (range: <DL—155 Bq kg–1), and 137Cs (range: <DL—41 Bq kg–1). Albeit nearly thirty years since the Chernobyl disaster, 137Cs activity concentration was detected at 67% of the study sites; however, the spatial distribution was not fully consistent with the 1986 Chernobyl deposition pattern. Rather, 137Cs was weakly correlated with rainfall, with higher concentrations along the west coast, suggesting that the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident was also a potential source. Average annual rainfall was a significant predictor of 210Pb activity (linear regression, R2 = 0.63, p < 0.001). As such, the highest radionuclide activity was observed for 210Pb (average: 541 Bq kg–1), owing to the high levels of precipitation across the study sites (average: 1585 mm). In contrast, 7Be or 40K were not correlated with precipitation; rather, 40K and 7Be were significantly correlated to each other (rs = 0.7), suggesting that both radionuclides were transferred from the substrate or through soil re-suspension. Precipitation is widely reported as an important factor in the spatial distribution of radionuclides; however, only 210Pb activity concentrations in moss were strongly influenced by precipitation in the current study. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surveys and Case Studies in Biomonitoring of Atmospheric Pollution)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 279 KiB  
Article
Accumulation of Atmospheric Metals and Nitrogen Deposition in Mosses: Temporal Development between 1990 and 2020, Comparison with Emission Data and Tree Canopy Drip Effects
by Winfried Schröder, Stefan Nickel, Annekatrin Dreyer and Barbara Völksen
Pollutants 2023, 3(1), 89-101; https://doi.org/10.3390/pollutants3010008 - 01 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1301
Abstract
Mosses are suitable for recording the bioaccumulation of atmospheric deposition over large areas at many sites. In Europe, such monitoring has been carried out every five years since 1990. Mosses have been collected and chemically analysed for metals (since 1990), nitrogen (since 2005), [...] Read more.
Mosses are suitable for recording the bioaccumulation of atmospheric deposition over large areas at many sites. In Europe, such monitoring has been carried out every five years since 1990. Mosses have been collected and chemically analysed for metals (since 1990), nitrogen (since 2005), persistent organic pollutants (since 2010) and microplastics (2020). The aims of this study were the following: (1) to analyse the temporal trends of metal and nitrogen accumulation in mosses between 1990 or 2005, respectively, and 2020 in Germany; (2) to compare the accumulation trends with emission data; and (3) to determine the effect of tree canopy drip on metal and nitrogen accumulation in mosses. For the temporal trend analysis, the minimum sample number required for a reliable estimation of arithmetic mean values and statistical parameters based on it was calculated. It was only achieved for nitrogen, but not for metals. Therefore, the temporal trends of the bioaccumulation of metals and nitrogen were calculated on the basis of median values. For the analysis of tree canopy effects on element accumulation in mosses, 14 vegetation structure measures were used, which together with 80 other descriptors characterise each moss collection site and its environment. The comparison of the data obtained during the first monitoring campaign with those of the 2020 survey showed a significant decrease in metal bioaccumulation. However, in contrast to the emission data, an increase in the accumulation of some metals was observed between 2000 and 2005 and of all metals from 2015 to 2020. Trends in Germany-wide nitrogen medians over the last three campaigns (2005, 2015 and 2020) show that nitrogen medians decreased by −2% between 2005 and 2015 and increased by +8% between 2015 and 2020. These differences are not significant and do not match the emission trends. Inferential statistics confirmed significantly higher metals and nitrogen accumulation in mosses collected under tree canopies compared to adjacent open areas. Measured concentrations of metals and nitrogen were significantly higher under tree canopies than outside of them, by 18–150%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surveys and Case Studies in Biomonitoring of Atmospheric Pollution)
15 pages, 2117 KiB  
Article
Interference of Past Soil Contaminations in the Biomonitoring of PCB Emissions from a Recovered Derived Fuels (RDFs) Co-Powered Cement Plant
by Lorenzo Fortuna and Mauro Tretiach
Pollutants 2023, 3(1), 12-26; https://doi.org/10.3390/pollutants3010002 - 29 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1795
Abstract
Although the intentional production of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) has totally been banned, these pollutants are still released into the atmosphere by industrial and domestic burning processes and by volatilization from soils locally contaminated by PCB spill-overs. The present work aims at identifying the [...] Read more.
Although the intentional production of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) has totally been banned, these pollutants are still released into the atmosphere by industrial and domestic burning processes and by volatilization from soils locally contaminated by PCB spill-overs. The present work aims at identifying the PCB sources in a mixed land use area of northeastern Italy around a cement plant co-powered with recovered derived fuels (RDFs) from 2018. Leaves of Robinia pseudoacacia trees were systematically sampled over c. 40 km2 in 37 sites and analyzed for 12 dioxin-like and 20 non-dioxin-like congeners. The samples of most sampling sites had a PCB content < LOD, whereas those with higher content were located in urban sites. The spatial distribution of PCB leaf content was not centered on the purported emission sources. The samples of three spatially unrelated sites had high contents of 2, 12 and 18 PCB congeners, with the last two having combinations fully compatible with past commercial mixtures traded under different names. Comparison of these results with those of previous (bio-)monitoring surveys supports the hypothesis that the area has been subjected to punctiform PCB spill-overs, which overwhelm the contribution from present day industrial emissions, comprised of those actually derived from the use of RDFs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surveys and Case Studies in Biomonitoring of Atmospheric Pollution)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-4
Back to TopTop