Moss and Lichen Biomonitoring of Atmospheric Pollution in the Western Cape Province (South Africa)

N B Ndlovu,P P Maleka,M V Frontasyeva,R T Newman

doi:10.4236/ajac.2019.103008

Abstract

For the first time, the atmospheric deposition of trace elements was investigated in two regions (Cape Winelands and Cape Peninsula) of the Western Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa (RSA) using naturally growing mosses and lichens. A total of 33 elements were determined by epithermal instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). Multivariate statistical analysis was used to identify and characterize different pollution sources.

Highlights

Open AccessThe use of lichens as indicators of healthy air dates back to 1866 when Nylander [1] evaluated air quality based on changes observed in the lichen community composition at Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris [2]
This paper presents the first survey of moss and lichen biomonitoring of atmospheric deposition of trace and other toxic elements conducted in the Western Cape province of South Africa (SA)
Our results indicated that mosses are generally more efficient than lichens at accumulating major, essential, potentially toxic and rare-earth elements

Summary

Introduction

Open AccessThe use of lichens as indicators of healthy air dates back to 1866 when Nylander [1] evaluated air quality based on changes observed in the lichen community composition at Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris [2]. The process of assessing changes in lichen community composition in order to evaluate “air quality” became one of the most used tools in most European countries [3] [4]. This technique of using biological material to monitor the environment, i.e. biomonitoring, only became well established across the world following the ground-breaking work by Rühling and Tyler in the late 1960s, introducing the use of naturally growing mosses as monitors of heavy metal deposition from the atmosphere [2] [3] [4] [5]. These are related to data acquired from Pretoria region (Gauteng Province) [11] [14] and from a mining industrial area in the North West Province of SA [15]

Methods

Results

Conclusion