Moss Biomonitoring in Former Sovet Union Countries: A Review

Introduction

Air pollution is a major problem in recent decades, which has a significant toxicological impact on human health and the environment (Ghorani-Azam et al., 2016). Various chemicals are emitted into the air from both natural and anthropogenic sources. The natural sources of air pollution include volcanic eruptions, geothermal sources and emissions from land and water, forest fires, sea salt in a coastal area, biological material and radiological decomposition (Pénard-Morand & Annesi-Maesano 2004). It is noteworthy that natural air pollution did not pose a serious problem as it is part of natural environment equilibrium, whereas the anthropogenic pollution sources present a major challenge for the world today. The increase of the pollution level is directly linked to the population growth which is associated with the growing demands in energy and consumer goods. The anthropogenic chemical pollution has no borders and is independent. The pollutants being released into the atmosphere will have an impact over the global environment (Popescu & Ionel 2010). Traditionally, the anthropogenic sources are divided into two groups - stationary and mobile sources (Pénard-Morand&Annesi-Maesano2004). The most important groups of anthropogenic air pollution sources are industrial activity, mining, transport and agricultural systems (Popescu & Ionel 2010; Aksu 2015; Zinicovscaia et al., 2017)

The long-term air pollution causes millions of deaths each year. In addition, it is associated with the number of immediate, medium-term and long-term human health problems such as the respiratory infections and inflammations, cardiovascular dysfunctions, and cancer (Ghorani-Azam et al., 2016; Olmo et al., 2011).

In the most countries, the various regulatory instruments are combined into a coordinated control programme. However, in practice, the air pollution monitoring is a complex problem, which requires identification of emissions sources, evaluation of analytical methods, risk assessment, control of critical emissions and integration of economic aspects (Wolterbeek 2002). In many countries the particular attention is given to determination of gaseous air pollutants such as sulphur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NO_x: NO, NO₂), carbon dioxide (CO₂) and ozone (O₃), etc. At the same time, the serious threat for the environment and human health represent the heavy metals, due to their toxicity, non-degradable nature and ability to be build up in organisms and move up in the food chain.

Dispersion modeling and field measurements of the emissions are used to learn about air pollutants. However, these techniques are characterized by low sensitivity, high costs and require long-term sampling at large numbers of sampling sites (Wolterbeek 2002). The moss biomonitoring technique, introduced in Scandinavian countries around 1970 (Ruhling & Tyler 1971), has proven to be suitable, cheap and efficient technique for the assessment of atmospheric deposition of heavy metals. In 1989/1990 the first moss survey at the European scale was conducted and since then the number of participating countries has greatly expanded (Harmens et al. 2013). Today, the moss biomonitoring studies in the European countries are mainly performed in the framework of the International Cooperative Programme on Effects of Air Pollution on Natural Vegetation and Crops International Cooperative Programme, (UNECE ICP Vegetation) (Harmens et al., 2008; 2009; 2013). Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia take an active part in the European moss survey, while similar information about the Newly Independent States (NIS) is not so well highlighted. The present chapter is the first attempt to collect and present data on moss biomonitoring study in NIS countries. A short description of countries is given as well.