In recent decades, naturally growing mosses have been used successfully as biomonitors of atmospheric deposition of heavy metals and nitrogen. Since 1990, the European moss survey has been repeated at five-yearly intervals. In 2010, the lowest concentrations of metals and nitrogen in mosses were generally found in northern Europe, whereas the highest concentrations were observed in (south-)eastern Europe for metals and the central belt for nitrogen. Averaged across Europe, since 1990, the median concentration in mosses has declined the most for lead (77%), followed by vanadium (55%), cadmium (51%), chromium (43%), zinc (34%), nickel (33%), iron (27%), arsenic (21%, since 1995), mercury (14%, since 1995) and copper (11%). Between 2005 and 2010, the decline ranged from 6% for copper to 36% for lead; for nitrogen the decline was 5%. Despite the Europe-wide decline, no changes or increases have been observed between 2005 and 2010 in some (regions of) countries.

Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi Iasi Romania

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Environment Centre Wales Deiniol Road Bangor Gwynedd LL57 2UW UK

Dunarea de Jos University of Galati Galati Romania

Environment Agency Argir Faroe Islands

Environmental Agency of Bolzano Laives Italy

Finnish Forest Research Institute Oulu Research Unit Oulu Finland

FUB Research Group for Environmental Monitoring Rapperswil Switzerland

Icelandic Institute of Natural History Iceland

Institute of Botany Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Sofia Bulgaria

Institute of Landscape Ecology Slovak Academy of Science Bratislava Slovakia

International Sakharov Environmental University Minsk Belarus

IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute Gothenburg Sweden

Joint Institute for Nuclear Research Dubna Russian Federation

Jožef Stefan Institute Ljubljana Slovenia

Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle Paris France

National Botanical Garden Academy of Science of Ukraine Kiev Ukraine

Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim Norway

Oikon Ltd Institute for Applied Ecology Zagreb Croatia

Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening Pruhonice Czech Republic

Slovenian Forestry Institute Ljubljana Slovenia

Ss Cyril and Methodius University Skopje Macedonia

Tallinn Botanic Garden Tallinn Estonia

Technical University of Cluj Napoca Baia Mare Romania

University of La Rioja Logroño Spain

University of Navarra Pamplona Spain

University of Santiago de Compestela Santiago de Compostela Spain

University of Tirana Tirana Albania

University of Vienna Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research Vienna Austria

Valahia University of Targoviste Targoviste Romania

Veterinary and Agrochemical Research Centre Tervuren Belgium

W Szafer Institute of Botany Polish Academy of Sciences Krakow Poland

Citace poskytuje Crossref.org

Modelling spatial patterns of correlations between concentrations of heavy metals in mosses and atmospheric deposition in 2010 across Europe