ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Present and Past Deposition of Heavy Metals
in Poland as Determined by Moss Monitoring
Paweł Kapusta, Grażyna Szarek-Łukaszewska, Barbara Godzik
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W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences,
Lubicz 46, 31-512 Kraków, Poland
Submission date: 2014-04-15
Final revision date: 2014-06-16
Acceptance date: 2014-07-08
Publication date: 2014-12-16
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2014;23(6):2047-2053
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ABSTRACT
This study investigates the air deposition of heavy metals (past and recent) in Poland using a common
bioindicator – moss Pleurozium schreberi. In 2010 moss samples were collected from 320 sites evenly distributed
throughout the country; 297 sites coincided with those in which the 1995 survey was carried out. In
green parts of mosses, the concentrations of Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, and Zn were determined. The 2010 data were
compared with those from 1995. The moss concentration of most of the studied metals decreased significantly
(P<0.05) between the surveyed years: from 0.45 to 0.30 mg Cd·kg-1, from 7.6 to 6.0 mg Cu·kg-1, from 362
to 344 mg Fe·kg-1, and from 18.8 to 4.9 mg Pb·kg-1, taking into account median values. This temporal trend
was dependent on region (for some provinces decreases were insignificant). The concentration of Zn did not
alter in time; median values of this variable were 42.8 and 47.5 mg·kg-1 in 1995 and 2010, respectively. The
spatial patterns of the heavy metal concentrations in mosses were similar in both surveys; southern parts of
Poland, industrialized and densely populated, were contaminated more than the rest of the country.