Monitoring Heavy Metal Contents with Sphagnum Junghuhnianum Moss Bags in Relation to Traffic Volume in Wuxi, China

Active moss biomonitoring of airborne potentially toxic elements in recreational areas of Moscow

Active biomonitoring using the moss bag technique was applied to examine the atmospheric deposition of potentially toxic and other elements in recreational areas of Moscow. Moss bags with Sphagnum girgensohnii were placed in the territory of seven parks (Losiny Ostrov, Victory Park, Ostankino, Sokolniki, Izmailovo, Kuzminki-Lyublino, Tsaritsyno) at three locations in each park from June to September 2018. The content of 32 chemical elements: Na, Mg, Al, Cl, K, Ca, Sc, V, Mn, Fe, Co, Zn, As, Br, Rb, Sr, Mo, Sb, Cs, Ba, La, Sm, Tb, Hf, Ta, W, Au, Th, U, Cu, Pb, and Cd in moss samples was determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis and atomic absorption spectrometry. After a 3-month exposure period, high uptake of Sb, U, Th, Sm, La, Mo, Zn, Co, Fe, V, Sc, etc. was observed in some of the moss samples. The physiologically active elements Cl and K and alkaline elements Rb and Cs were depleted from the moss tissue during the exposure. The high accumulation of Zn, Pb, Cu, Co, V, and Sb in moss samples evidenced an anthropogenic impact on the parks, mainly associated with road traffic. To determine the level of pollution, a set of environmental indices was calculated: contamination factor (CF), enrichment factor (EF), total pollution index (TPI), and relative accumulation factor (RAF). The highest RAF values were obtained for Sb on the territory of all parks. According to EF, the samples were enriched in Al, Fe, U, Pb, Cd, Au, Sb, Th, and Ta. High CF values were obtained for sites in Losiny Ostrov, Izmailovo, Tsaritsyno, and Kuzminki-Lyublino located close to roads. According to TPI, the level of air pollution on the territory of the abovementioned parks varied from moderate to high. To identify the major sources of pollution, correlation analysis and principal component analysis were applied.

Is Active Moss Biomonitoring Comparable to Air Filter Standard Sampling?

Recently, significant attention has been paid to air quality awareness and its impact on human health, especially in urban agglomerations. Many types of dust samplers for air quality monitoring are used by governmental environmental monitoring agencies. However, these techniques are associated with high costs; as a consequence, biological methods such as active moss biomonitoring are being developed. The main disadvantages of such techniques are the lack of standardization of the preparation procedures and the lack of reliable comparisons of results with data from instrumental analyses. Our study aimed to compare the results obtained from active biomonitoring with the use of three moss species: Pleurozium schreberi, Sphagnum fallax and Dicranum polysetum. Samples were exposed via the moss-bag technique to measure the concentrations of analytes (Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg and Pb) which had accumulated among the total suspended particulates (TSP) collected from the filters of a dust collector in the city of Opole (Opole voivodeship, Poland). With regard to the physicochemical and biological traits of the mosses, their assessed lifetime and actual photochemical efficiency (yield) following exposure were meagre, which may have been related to the change of environment and their exposure to pollutants. When comparing the results obtained by the two methods used to monitor air pollution, the biomonitoring method was found to be incompletely consistent with the reference method. Biological monitoring using mosses must be carefully considered depending on the monitoring objectives, the required level of sensitivity and quality of measurement and the type of pollutant.

Monitoring Air Quality with Transplanted Bryophytes in a Neotropical Andean City

Air pollution is one of the main global environmental problems, where bryophytes, due to their high capacity to retain metals and other pollutants, have been widely used in active air quality monitoring studies in temperate and tropical zones. Thus, in this study, we analyzed for the first time the concentrations of eight metals (cadmium, copper, nickel, aluminum, iron, manganese, lead and zinc) in three species of transplanted mosses (Rhacocarpus purpurascens (Brid.) Paris, Sphagnum sp. and Thuidium delicatulum (Hedw.) Schimp.) from Ecuador. Significant differences were found for the three species in the concentrations of Al, Mn, Fe and Zn between urban and control areas, pointing to the Central zone as the main source of contamination with the highest concentrations of Al, Fe, Mn and Zn, related to vehicular traffic. Lead did not differ between zones for Rhacocarpus purpurascens and Sphagnum sp.; however, Thuidium delicatulum accumulated different concentrations between urban areas and the control areas. The three species of mosses provided valuable information on the contamination of Al, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn in the urban area of the city of Loja, and therefore can be used in future air quality monitoring programs over time in tropical cities.

Source and spatial distribution of airborne heavy metal deposition studied using mosses as biomonitors in Yancheng, China

Naturally growing mosses have been successfully used as biomonitors of atmospheric heavy metal (HM) deposition. In recent years, with rapid economic development, environmental pollution in Yancheng, a coastal city in central Jiangsu Province, China, has become increasingly serious. However, to date, there have been no reports on atmospheric HM deposition in Yancheng. In this study, we investigated the HM concentrations and Pb isotopes in the moss Haplocladium microphyllum (Hedw.) Broth. from Yancheng and analyzed their main sources. The concentrations of HM in mosses from Yancheng were higher than those recorded in other studies of mosses from HM smelting regions and pollution-free areas of Eurasia and Alaska. The contamination factor value suggested that the pollution level of Cd was the highest. The pollution load index indicated that the studied area was severely contaminated with Cd, Cr, Pb, Zn, V, Ni, and Cu. Positive matrix factorization was employed to identify the contamination sources of HM and apportion their source contributions in mosses. The contributions of the natural source, together with manufacturing and construction, metal processing and chemical industries, traffic emissions and fuel burning in industrial activities, and agricultural activities, accounted for 53%, 33%, 12%, and 2%, respectively. The Pb isotopic ratios in the mosses (1.125-1.164 for 206Pb/207Pb, 2.059-2.148 for 208Pb/206Pb) further proved that metal processing and traffic emissions were the main sources of Pb contamination. These results are useful for developing various effective measures to prevent and reduce atmospheric HM deposition in Yancheng.

Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between urinary zinc and lung function among urban adults in China

Background

Exposure to zinc was suggested to be associated with pulmonary damage, but whether zinc exposure affects lung function remains unclear.

Objectives

To quantify the association between urinary zinc and lung function and explore the potential mechanisms.

Methods

Urinary zinc and lung function were measured in 3917 adults from the Wuhan-Zhuhai cohort and were repeated after 3 years of follow-up. Indicators of systemic inflammation (C reactive protein), lung epithelium integrity (club cell secretory protein-16) and oxidative damage (8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine and 8-isoprostane) were measured at baseline. Linear mixed models were used to estimate the exposure–response relationship between urinary zinc and lung function. Mediation analyses were conducted to assess mediating roles of inflammation and oxidative damage in above relationships.

Results

Each 1-unit increase in log-transformed urinary zinc values was associated with a 35.72 mL decrease in forced vital capacity (FVC) and a 24.89 mL decrease in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) in the baseline analyses. In the follow-up analyses, there was a negative association between urinary zinc and FVC among participants with persistent high urinary zinc levels, with an estimated change of −93.31 mL (95% CI −178.47 to −8.14). Furthermore, urinary zinc was positively associated with restrictive ventilatory impairment. The mediation analyses suggested that C reactive protein mediated 8.62% and 8.71% of the associations of urinary zinc with FVC and FEV1, respectively.

Conclusion

Urinary zinc was negatively associated with lung function, and the systemic inflammation may be one of the underlying mechanisms.

National environmental quality assessment and monitoring of atmospheric heavy metal pollution - A moss bag approach

As airborne pollution is recognised as the single largest environmental health hazard in Europe, the necessity to develop effective systems for monitoring and reducing the level of air pollutants, becomes imperative. The paper describes a tested and implemented long-term biomonitoring system for airborne heavy metals at a national scale. Moss bags (Hylocomium splendens) were exposed in 142 monitoring stations designated in Romania, and the content of Pb, Cd, Ni and As was quantified using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The results revealed that the accumulation of heavy metals exceeded the established thresholds, marking high pollution levels in 8.8% of samples for As, in 5.63% samples for Cd, in 3.17% samples for Pb, and in 0.35% samples for Ni. The maximum heavy metal concentration was 113.77 mg kg^-1 dry weight for Pb, 44.93 mg kg^-1 dry weight for Ni, 14.68 mg kg^-1 dry weight for As, and 3.88 mg kg^-1 dry weight for Cd, with several overlaps for at least two metals, thus marking pollution hotspots. In order to process, summarise and communicate the obtained data, a software named BioMonRo has been developed as the core part of a complex monitoring and warning-informative system. The software is able to generate heavy metal pollution maps and specific reports, depicting the levels and patterns of distribution, which can be automatically sent to a number of interested recipients. The results show that the developed national system is functional, cost-effective, and could be successfully used for long-term monitoring of airborne heavy metals.

Perspective of mitigating atmospheric heavy metal pollution: using mosses as biomonitoring and indicator organism

Mosses were proved as an ideal and reliable biomonitor as well as an indicator of atmospheric trace metal pollution. They are used as model indicator species of air pollution since long back due to their simple structure, genetic diversity, totipotency, rapid colony-forming ability, and high metal resistance behavior. Bryomonitoring technique is gradually being popularized as an economically viable procedure for estimating the degrees of environmental health and evaluating the toxic pollutants in biosphere. Thus, in the present scenario, many parts of the world use these organisms for monitoring the air pollution. This article describes an overview of the relationship of terrestrial mosses with trace metals with respect to their uptake, accumulation, and toxification as well as detoxification and tolerance mechanisms. The review article explicitly expresses the caliber of the cryptogamic mosses in establishing the pristine environment around the world. It also highlights the underpinning mechanisms and potential for future research directions. We have referred more than 250 articles, which deals with the assessment and impact of different heavy metals on 52 numbers of different moss species belongs to different climatic zones. The present review covers the research work in this area carried out worldwide since 1965.

An empirical model on the impact of foreign direct investment on China's environmental pollution: analysis based on simultaneous equations

This paper analyses the link between foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth and their subsequent impact on environmental pollution in China. The simultaneous equation method was used with data from 31 provinces in China covering the period between 1995 and 2016. The findings indicate that the effect of FDI on economic growth, industrial structure, and environmental pollution control positively impacts on China's industrial pollution control and environmental conditions, implying that China should encourage foreign capital investments that come with advanced production technology and green production processes. This will enhance efficient resource utilization, adherence to environmental standards, and ensuring sustainable economic development.

Transplanted Moss Hylocomium splendens as a Bioaccumulator of Trace Elements from Different Categories of Sampling Sites in the Upper Silesia Area (SW Poland): Bulk and Dry Deposition Impact

Concentrations of Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, K, Fe, Mn, Pb, V and Zn in transplants of Hylocomium splendens (Hedw.) Schimp. were compared with bulk deposition and dust samples from three different categories of sites: industrial, residential and their surroundings and rural (15 in total). Mosses were transplanted for 90 days to severely polluted areas of Upper Silesia, and samples of precipitation and dust were collected during the same period. Most of the significant correlations between element concentrations in mosses and bulk deposition (Cd, Ni, Pb and Zn) were found for industrial sites. In this study dry deposition carried higher element concentrations than bulk deposition, which may result in the higher passive capture of particulate matter by mosses.