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Accumulation of minor and trace elements in lichens in and around Kolkata, India: an application of X‐ray fluorescence technique to air pollution monitoring
Author(s) -
Majumdar S.,
Ram S. S.,
Ja. K.,
Santra S.,
Chakraborty A.,
Sudarshan M.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
x‐ray spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.447
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1097-4539
pISSN - 0049-8246
DOI - 10.1002/xrs.1189
Subject(s) - pollution , environmental chemistry , bioindicator , lichen , environmental science , pollutant , air pollution , urbanization , particulates , particulate pollution , megacity , chemistry , ecology , organic chemistry , biology
A recent environmental survey has listed Kolkata, a megacity in Eastern India, as one of the most polluted cities in the world. Rapid urbanization and industrialization have resulted in an alarming increase in the level of air pollution in the city. Epiphytic lichens have extensively been used worldwide as bioindicators of environmental quality. They are very responsive to environmental stressors, especially gaseous pollutants and particulates including trace elements and heavy metals. This work describes application of energy dispersive X‐ray fluorescence, a fast multi‐elemental analytical technique, for estimating concentration of trace elements of lichen samples collected from sites in and around Kolkata. The results indicate that the samples from sites burdened with heavy vehicular load together with pollution from various industries and factories have significantly higher concentration of elements such as S, Ca, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni and Pb as compared to those collected from sites having less or no load. Remarkable seasonal variation is also noted in the concentration of the elements such as Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn and Pb. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.