Abstract
Air traffic represents an important way of social mobility in the world, and many ongoing discussions are related to the impacts that air transportation has on local air quality. In this study, moss Sphagnum girgensohnii was used for the first time in the assessment of trace element content at the international airport. The moss bags were exposed during the summer of 2013 at four sampling sites at the airport ‘Nikola Tesla’ (Belgrade, Serbia): runway (two), auxiliary runway and parking lot. According to the relative accumulation factor (RAF) and the limit of quantification of the moss bag technique (LOQT), the most abundant elements in the samples were Zn, Na, Cr, V, Cu and Fe. A comparison between the element concentrations at the airport and the corresponding values in different land use classes (urban central, suburban, industrial and green zones) across the city of Belgrade did not point out that the air traffic and associated activities significantly contribute to the trace element air pollution. This study emphasised an easy operational and robust (bio)monitoring, using moss bags as a suitable method for assessment of air quality within various microenvironments with restriction in positioning referent instrumental devices.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Secretariat for Environmental Protection of Belgrade and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia (project no. III43007) for financial support and to the bilateral cooperation with Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia. We would also like to thank the management and staff of the ‘Nikola Tesla’ airport for enabling us to conduct this research.
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Vuković, G., Urošević, M.A., Škrivanj, S. et al. The first survey of airborne trace elements at airport using moss bag technique. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 15107–15115 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9140-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-9140-0