ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Biomonitoring Road Dust Pollution Along Streets
with Various Traffic Densities
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1
Department of Ecology, Faculty of Humanities and Natural Sciences, University of Prešov, Prešov, Slovakia
2
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences,
Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Nitra, Slovakia
3
Department of Geography and Applied Geoinformatics, University of Prešov, Prešov, Slovakia
4
Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic
Submission date: 2018-06-05
Final revision date: 2018-09-17
Acceptance date: 2018-10-07
Online publication date: 2019-05-17
Publication date: 2019-07-08
Corresponding author
Lenka Demková
Universtiy of Prešov, Abranovce 1, 08252 Prešov, Slovak Republic
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2019;28(5):3687-3696
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ABSTRACT
Three lichen species (Phaeophyscia orbicularis, Physcia adscendens, and Xanthoria parietina), were
sampled from the deciduous trees along nine streets of various traffic densities in Prešov, Slovakia. The
total concentrations of risk elements (Al, As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Li, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) were determined by
the ICP-OES method. Phaeophyscia orbicularis showed the best ability to accumulate all evaluated risk
elements except Pb and Cr. X. parientina was found to be the least suitable for bioaccumulation purposes.
The concentration of evaluated risk elements in lichen insoles came predominantly from traffic, which
was confirmed by a significant positive correlation between risk elements and traffic density. Based on
the results of contamination factor, evaluated streets were most polluted by Cr, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn and
only slightly polluted by Cd. Provably higher values of Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni and Zn were measured in streets
with higher traffic density. According to the cluster analysis, two groups of risk elements, expressing
their origin, were found.