CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Environmental predictors in South America are pointing toward an intensification of environmental problems rather to an improvement of them unless some measures could be taken to reduce air pollutant emissions. Moreover, environmental standards are weak in comparison with industrializad countries and control mechanisms are too much less strict. On the other hand, the control of air pollutant emissions frequently does not exist or is insufficient. Thus, the use of air pollution biomonitors represents an important contribution to South America environments, where measurements of particulate matter or other types of pollutants in big areas would require expensive technical equipment that are generally not available. The plant response to air pollutants depends upon the chemical toxicity of the pollutant, its exposure pattern and the sensitivity of the species. Besides, pollutants may influence plant growth and development through multiple pathways and mechanisms over widely varying timescales. Effects may be direct due to deposition on plant surfaces, or indirect, as a consequence of altered nutrients or toxic metals availability or due to altered susceptibility to other stresses. Although several studies have shown that trace element concentrations in biomonitors show average concentration of particulate matter in air and both wet or dry depositions of pollutants over a certain time, this kind of research has not been carried out so far on a large scale employing native biomonitors in Argentina. In plants and lichens, there is evidence of high interspecific differences in metal accumulation, heavily influenced by their morphology and/or ecophysiology (4). Thus, the study of the accumulation perfomance of the species used as biomonitors in Argentina, will help to evaluate the data from this survey.

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