Sensitivity of biomonitors and local variations of element concentrations in air pollution biomonitoring

Abstract

In this work, we compare the concentrations of trace elements for fourty samples of lichens, mosses and tree barks used as biomonitors in an air pollution biomonitoring study in Morocco. This comparison concerns six types of biomonitors: the lichens Xanthoria parietina, Parmelia sulcata and Evernia prunastri; the moss Hylocomium splendens and barks of cedar and cork oak. The complementarity of three analytical methods was used in order to increase the number of determined elements. These techniques are: 14 MeV neutron activation analysis, thermal neutron activation analysis using the k ₀-quasi-absolute method and X-ray fluorescence analysis. The results enabled us to compare the element accumulation sensitivity for the six biomonitors used and to study the local concentration variations versus biomonitors sizes and the height above ground of their collecting point.