Biomonitoring of trace element air pollution: principles, possibilities and perspectives

This paper discusses the biomonitoring of trace element air pollution. Much attention is given to both lichens and mosses as the dominant plant species used in biomonitoring surveys. Biomonitoring is regarded as a means to assess trace element concentrations in aerosols and deposition. This implies that the monitor should concentrate the elements of interest and quantitatively reflect its elemental ambient conditions. Environmental impact on the biomonitorʹs behaviour is viewed as resulting in changes in the dose–response relationships. The current literature is briefly reviewed, for plantʹs behaviour modelling, for laboratory studies on physiological processes responsible for accumulation, retention and release, and for field work on quantification of dose–response relationships. Monitoring of elemental atmospheric availability is presented as deriving its relevance from presumed impact on both ecosystem performance and human health; source apportionment is regarded as an important parallel result for purposes of emission regulatory management. For source apportionment, the paper argues in favor of multi-elemental determinations, supplemented by information on organic compounds and elemental chemical forms. Furthermore, the discussion points towards more explicit coupling of biomonitoring data to knowledge and databases on both emission registration, ecosystem performance and human health. This means that multidisciplinary programs should be set up, which accommodate expert inputs from biomonitoring, emission control programs, analytical chemistry, ecology, and epidemiology.