Atmospheric Deposition: Sampling Procedures, Analytical Methods, and Main Recent Findings from the Scientific Literature

Table 13

Most common biological species used in biomonitoring with main properties and references.

Biological species	Properties	Pollutants	References
Lichens	Lack of roots	Ions	[110]
	Aerial resource supply	N and S	[110]
	Same morphology throughout the seasons	PCDDs/Fs	[110, 111]
	Longevity	PAHs	[94, 106, 107, 109, 112, 211–218]
	Slow growth	Heavy metals	[98, 100]
Mosses	Lack of roots	Heavy metals	[95, 96, 103]
	Aerial resource supply
	High surface area/mass ratio
	High efficiency in accumulation	PAHs, POPs	[97, 104]
Pine needles	One conifer tree branch has several year-classes of needles, which makes it possible to obtain a pollution profile for more than one year	PAHs	[112]
		PCDDs/Fs	[111]
Plants
Tillandsia usneoides	No roots	Heavy metals	[113]
	Aerial resource supply
	Mill metric dimensions of leaves
	High surface area/mass ratio
Taraxacum officinale L.; Trifolium pratense L.	High efficiency in accumulation	Heavy metals, in particular Cu	[115]
Urtica dioica L.	Versatile and diffuse evergreen ornamental specie	Heavy metals, in particular Pb	[115]
P. tobira	Useful to assess levels and patterns of pollutants in urban areas	Heavy metals	[221]