Air Pollution Research Based on Spider Web and Parallel Continuous Particulate Monitoring—A Comparison Study Coupled with Identification of Sources

Abstract

Air pollution is monitored mainly in urban or industrial areas, even if it is known that in rural ones, low emission can significantly worsen air quality. Hence, cheap and easily accessible methods of monitoring are needed. Recently, spider webs biomonitoring is getting popular, however, there is no information about its comparison with active methods. In this study, PTEs accumulated on spider webs were compared with results from continuous particulate monitor (CPM). Generally, higher potentially toxic elements concentrations were noted in spider web, with exception in the case of Zn. Zn may be present rather in smaller fractions, hence it needs more time for accumulation on spider web while it is easily collected by CPM. Higher concentrations of other elements on spider webs may result from formation of aggregates which could not be reported in PM10 sampling (CPM). What is more, the order of the most and the least accumulated elements were similar and the percentage share of studied elements was coherent in most cases, proving that this new tool prospers to become commonly used in biomonitoring. Additionally, to identify possible sources of pollution air backward trajectories and trajectory frequencies for Kotórz were prepared based on the HYSPLIT model.

The use of spider webs in the monitoring of air quality—A review

“…It was mentioned that the relationship between the pollutants in the air and those measured in webs should be studied in future research. As yet, however, only two studies have attempted to compare the pollution collected on the web with the actual air pollution (Rybak et al, 2015; Stojanowska et al, 2021). However, due to different mechanisms of particle accumulation (mechanically controlled flow versus sedimentation) and differentiation in the size of accumulated particles, the comparison was difficult.…”

“…The studies comparing accumulation in a spider web with standard methods have been conducted twice (Rybak et al, 2015; Stojanowska et al, 2021). However, as presented in the studies mentioned above, such comparison is very difficult, and more studies are needed to fully understand the issue.…”

Can Abies alba Needles Be Used as Bio-passive Samplers to Assess Air Quality?

“…Kłos et al, 2007;Ciężka et al, 2018;Kłos et al, 2018), mosses (e.g. Kłos et al, 2018;Maxhuni et al, 2016;Shetekauri et al, 2018), spider webs (Bartz et al, 2021;Górka et al, 2018;Stojanowska et al, 2020;Stojanowska et al, 2021). Also tree leaves and needles are considered useful bioindicator (Górka et al, 2020;Lehndorff and Schwark, 2004;Wang et al, 2015;Wuytack et al, 2010) as they have the capacity to accumulate particulate matter on their surface, that is further trapped by being covered with epicuticular wax (Zeisler-Diehl et al 2018).…”

Health risk assessment in the vicinity of a copper smelter: particulate matter collected on a spider web

“…Biomonitoring is a method where living organisms, their parts, or even their products are used to quantitatively assess the quality of the environment (Markert 2007). In air pollution assessment, mosses (Kosior et al 2008;Kosior et al 2015;Schintu et al 2005), lichens (Ciężka et al 2018;Massimi et al 2019;Stojanowska et al 2020), tree leaves and needles (Górka et al 2020;Stojanowska et al 2021;Teper 2009;Wang et al 2015) are well-known and frequently used. One of the newest tools used in biomonitoring is the application of spider web.…”