Comparison of moss bag and native moss technique in monitoring airborne particulate and toxic elements

Abstract

Introduction: In Vietnam, the government has invested in monitoring stations in a few big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, which have transportation centers and industrial zones, to assess and predict levels of air pollution. However, the main disadvantage of installing monitoring stations is the cost of investment for operations, maintenance, and equipment. It is also time-consuming to collect and analyze the results. Therefore, it is generally not suitable for the country as a whole.
 Methods: Using mosses to monitor air quality brings qualitative and quantitative data with simple, environmentally-friendly economic methods. Mosses have particular biological characteristics that make them very suitable adsorbents for a wide variety of chemical elements. When used as transplants like moss bags, allow them to monitor a highly dense sampling network of any site easily. Mosses are bioindicators, plants with artificial roots.
 Results: In this study, moss bag and native moss were the two methods used to evaluate the accumulation of trace elements in air through Barbula Indica. Observations showed that both methods could detect the same elements: Al, Si, P, S, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Br, Rb, Y, Sb, Ba, Pb, and U. However, the accumulation of the elements in native moss is higher than in moss bag. The main reason is that the absorption efficiency of native moss in air-deposited elements is higher than in moss bags.
 Conclusion: Moss bags have been used most extensively and successfully in urban areas, where vegetation samples are either unobtainable or are poorly located to the source. These areas can lack moss, or the native moss simply does not grow during the dry season.