METAL BIOMONITORING WITH MOSSES - PROCEDURES FOR CORRECTING FOR SOIL CONTAMINATION

Highly variable total concentrations of 15 elements have been found in five species of epigeic mosses growing in remote areas of Italy and i n northern Victoria Land (continental Antarctica). It is very likely t hat soil particles entrapped in the mosses cause these high element co ncentration differences, thereby leading to inexact interpretations of baseline concentrations and of element distribution in different part s of mosses. A simple procedure for estimating more plausible backgrou nd values that consists of subtracting the substratum contribution fro m raw concentrations of elements in mosses is reported The normalizati on of total concentrations to the regional soil composition is also em phasized in ol der to point out other possible metal sources.