Monitoring long-term and large scale deposition of air pollutants based on moss analysis

A brief historical review is given on the development and milestones of the moss biomonitoring technique used to study atmospheric deposition of trace elements, nitrogen, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and radionuclides of technogenic and natural origin in Europe. The relevance of these studies to the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) is emphasized. Examples of the long-term activity of the ICP Vegetation (International Cooperative Programme on Effects of Air Pollution on Natural Vegetation and Crops) established in 1987 are given to illustrate the tendencies in behavior on a large scale of air pollutants such as heavy metals, nitrogen and persistent organic pollutants. In agreement with the long-term strategy of the LRTAP Convention to enhance participation and to improve air quality in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and South Eastern Europe, efforts to extend the moss survey to former republics of the USSR such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan were successfully undertaken. Around 15 teams were formed in Russia to cover moss sampling in Northern and Central Russia, Western Siberia, and the Far East of Russia (Kamchatka and Sakhalin). All in all, 39 countries participated in the 2015-2016 moss survey. Analytical methods and approaches to data interpretation are reviewed.