101
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
B. Balabanova, T. Stafilov (eds.), Contaminant Levels and Ecological Effects,
Emerging Contaminants and Associated Treatment Technologies,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66135-9_4
Chapter 4
Lichens as the Main Indicator in Biological
Monitoring of Air Quality
Svetlana Ristić, Robert Šajn, and Slaviša Stamenković
Abstract Based on the available knowledge on air quality impairment, there is
now a need to know the type and degree of pollution. One of the basic prerequisites
for improving air quality is the timely detection of pollution. The bioindication
method is widely used as a significant tool for air quality assessment by taking into
account the temporal dimension of the negative impact of pollutants in the ecosystem based on the reaction of living organisms to the total sum of all the effects of
different environmental factors. This is the only method that assesses the impact of
air quality on living beings directly. The best bioindicators are lichens due to their
pronounced sensitivity to air quality changes. Over time, lichens accumulate a variety of different pollutants which may pose potential risks to ecosystems and human
health. Taking into account the time dimension, it is especially useful to monitor the
state of air quality in anthropogenically modified ecosystems. Therefore, the focus
of this chapter is the indication and zoning of different degrees of air quality in
selected seminatural and anthropogenically modified ecosystems of Serbia over a
longer period of time, based on the contemporary methods of using lichens as
bioindicators.
Keywords Passive biomonitoring · Lichens · Air pollution · Spatial distribution ·
Indication zone
S. Ristić (*)
Department of Environmental Protection, Faculty of Applied Sciences,
University “Union - Nikola Tesla”, Niš, Serbia
R. Šajn
Geological Survey of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia
S. Stamenković
Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics, University of Niš,
Niš, Serbia
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
B. Balabanova, T. Stafilov (eds.), Contaminant Levels and Ecological Effects,
Emerging Contaminants and Associated Treatment Technologies,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66135-9_4
Chapter 4
Lichens as the Main Indicator in Biological
Monitoring of Air Quality
Svetlana Ristić, Robert Šajn, and Slaviša Stamenković
Abstract Based on the available knowledge on air quality impairment, there is
now a need to know the type and degree of pollution. One of the basic prerequisites
for improving air quality is the timely detection of pollution. The bioindication
method is widely used as a significant tool for air quality assessment by taking into
account the temporal dimension of the negative impact of pollutants in the ecosystem based on the reaction of living organisms to the total sum of all the effects of
different environmental factors. This is the only method that assesses the impact of
air quality on living beings directly. The best bioindicators are lichens due to their
pronounced sensitivity to air quality changes. Over time, lichens accumulate a variety of different pollutants which may pose potential risks to ecosystems and human
health. Taking into account the time dimension, it is especially useful to monitor the
state of air quality in anthropogenically modified ecosystems. Therefore, the focus
of this chapter is the indication and zoning of different degrees of air quality in
selected seminatural and anthropogenically modified ecosystems of Serbia over a
longer period of time, based on the contemporary methods of using lichens as
bioindicators.
Keywords Passive biomonitoring · Lichens · Air pollution · Spatial distribution ·
Indication zone
S. Ristić (*)
Department of Environmental Protection, Faculty of Applied Sciences,
University “Union - Nikola Tesla”, Niš, Serbia
R. Šajn
Geological Survey of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia
S. Stamenković
Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics, University of Niš,
Niš, Serbia