Moss biomonitoring of air pollution with chromium in Croatia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the atmospheric deposition of chromium in Croatia by using moss biomonitoring technique and atomic emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-AES). Moss samples (Hylocomium splendens, Hypnum cupressiforme, Brachythecium rutabulum and Homalothecium Sericeum) were collected from 121 sampling sites evenly distributed over the country, during the summer and autumn of 2010. Collected samples were air dried, then cleaned and digested by using microwave digestion system. The median value obtained in this study (1.94 mg kg⁻¹) compared with the median value of previous investigation performed in 2006 (2.75 mg kg⁻¹) shows that the content of chromium decreased. Higher contents of chromium were found in moss samples collected in the regions of Central Croatia, in/near the cities of Zagreb, Sisak and Kutina, which, in the most of the cases, are result of anthropogenic activities. In Costal Croatia, higher values have a natural origin due to the significantly higher content of Cr in soil from this region. The results were compared with those from similar studies in neighboring and other Balkan countries. It was established that the content of chromium in Croatia is lower than in the most of these countries.