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Ecophysiological and ultrastructural effects of dust pollution in lichens exposed around a cement plant (SW Slovakia)

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Abstract

The study investigated the ecophysiological and ultrastructural effects of dust pollution from a cement industry in the lichen species Evernia prunastri and Xanthoria parietina, which were exposed for 30, 90 and 180 days around a cement mill, two quarries, and inhabited and agricultural sites in SW Slovakia. The results showed that dust deposition from quarrying activities and cement works at the cement mill (mainly enriched in Ca, Fe and Ti) significantly affected the photosynthetic apparatus of E. prunastri (sensitive to dust and habitat eutrophication), while X. parietina (tolerant to dust and habitat eutrophication) adapted to the new environment. The length of the exposure strongly affected the vitality of the mycobiont (measured as dehydrogenase activity) in transplanted lichens. Dust deposition led to ultrastructural alterations, including lipid droplets increase, swelling of cellular components, thylakoid degeneration and sometimes plasmolysis, which, on the whole, gave the cells an aged appearance. Photosynthetic parameters deserve further attention as potential indicators for monitoring early biological symptoms of the air pollution caused during cement production.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to four anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. Research carried out in the framework of the VEGA 2/0034/13 project. LP acknowledges the National Scholarship Programme of the Slovak Republic (ID 9030), funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena, Via P.A. Mattioli 4, 53100, Siena, Italy

    Luca Paoli, Alice Grassi & Stefano Loppi

  2. Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 84523, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Anna Guttová, Anna Lackovičová & Dušan Senko

  3. Centro di Servizi Metrologici Avanzati (CeSMA), Sezione di Microscopia LaMMEC, University of Naples, Via Foria 223, 80139, Naples, Italy

    Sergio Sorbo

  4. Department of Biology, University of Naples, Via Foria 223, 80139, Naples, Italy

    Adriana Basile

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  1. Luca Paoli
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  2. Anna Guttová
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  3. Alice Grassi
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  4. Anna Lackovičová
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  5. Dušan Senko
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  6. Sergio Sorbo
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  7. Adriana Basile
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  8. Stefano Loppi
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Correspondence to Luca Paoli.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Paoli, L., Guttová, A., Grassi, A. et al. Ecophysiological and ultrastructural effects of dust pollution in lichens exposed around a cement plant (SW Slovakia). Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 15891–15902 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4807-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4807-x

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