engleski

The Moss survey 2006 in the Republic of Croatia

For the first time the moss biomonitoring technique has been applied to air pollution study in the Republic of Croatia. Moss samples have been collected in summer of 2006 from 94 sites evenly distributed over the country in accordance with the sampling strategy of the European Programme on Biomonitoring Heavy Metal Atmospheric Deposition. Conventional and epithermal neutron activation analysis has made it possible to determine the concentrations of 39 elements including heavy metals, lanthanides and actinides (Th and U). The results obtained are consistent with the median European values for most of the elements. The principle component analysis (factor analysis with VARIMAX rotation) has been applied to distinguish heavy and light crustal elements, marine (Cl, Br, I) and vegetation ones from those of anthropogenic origin. The obtained data set has been used to generate elemental distribution maps over the sampled territory. The geographic distribution patterns of the factor scores have been also designed. Atomic absorption spectrometry as a complementary analytical technique will be used for determination of such environmentally meaningful elements as Pb, Cd, Cu, and Hg. These results will be reported later.

air pollution; moss; biomonitoring; Croatia

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