Biomonitoring of metal levels in urban areas with different vehicular traffic intensity by using Araucaria heterophylla needles

Assessment of metals in PM10 filters and Araucaria heterophylla needles in two areas of Quito, Ecuador

“…The procedure followed to collect and determine the concentration of metals in PM 10 filters and needles was explained in detail previously (Alexandrino et al, 2020a;Zalakeviciute et al, 2020a). Briefly, the PM 10 samples were collected twice a month between January 2017 and December 2018 over a 24-h period.…”

“…The methods by Zalakeviciute et al (2020a) and Alexandrino et al (2020a) were used to obtain the chemical composition of PM 10 filters and needles, respectively. Briefly, 16 cm 3 of loaded filter or 0.5 g of fresh needle sample was digested (microwave digestion system MARS 6 -CEM Corporation) with 10 ml of concentrated HNO 3 or with 7 ml of concentrated HNO 3 , 2 ml of H 2 O 2 and 1 ml of ultrapure water, for the filters and needles, respectively.…”

“…The diluted solutions were analyzed for concentrations of Cr, Cu, K, Mn, Pb, Zn, Ca, Fe, Al and Mg using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES, Thermo Scientific iCAP 7000 Series). The extraction efficiencies were determined using the certified reference materials NIST1648a -Urban particulate matter and NIST SRM 1575a -Trace elements in Pine Needles, as explained previously (Alexandrino et al, 2020a;Zalakeviciute et al, 2020a). Moreover, blank filters were subjected to the same chemical procedure as the sampled filters in order to determine the limit of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) for each element (see Zalakeviciute et al (2020a) for details).…”

“…Whereas, its ability to accumulate metals is scarcely studied. In a previous work of the group (Alexandrino et al, 2020a), the Araucaria heterophylla was used for the first time to assess the presence of metals in areas with different vehicular traffic intensity. The samples were collected from a number of sites with high, moderate and low vehicular traffic intensity, showing that Araucaria heterophylla needles are suitable for monitoring metals associated with road traffic emissions.…”

Accumulation of Potentially Toxic Elements in Mosses Collected in the Republic of Moldova

“…Monitoring technique using living organisms is a reliable and economically viable procedure for estimating the degree of environmental pollution [ 4 ]. Suitable biological organisms (mosses, lichens) are used as biomonitors and indicators of atmospheric deposition of potentially toxic elements [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Among those organisms, mosses have been widely used as an indicator of atmospheric pollution by toxic elements, as reported by various researchers [ 1 , 3 , 4 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ].…”