Monitoring H2S air pollution caused by the industrial exploitation of geothermal energy: the pitfall of using lichens as bioindicators

Stefano Loppi; Juri Nascimbene

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2010.05.002

Monitoring H2S air pollution caused by the industrial exploitation of geothermal energy: the pitfall of using lichens as bioindicators

Environ Pollut. 2010 Aug;158(8):2635-9. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2010.05.002.

Authors

Stefano Loppi¹, Juri Nascimbene

Affiliation

¹ Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy. loppi@unisi.it

PMID: 20605294
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2010.05.002

Abstract

This study showed that NH(3) emitted from geothermal power plants affects the surrounding epiphytic lichen vegetation and diversity, confounding the interpretation of lichen diversity counts in terms of air pollution by H(2)S. The presence of nitrophytic lichen species around geothermal installations, determined by NH(3), caused relatively high diversity values that were not related with the levels of air pollution by H(2)S. It is recommended that in the presence of NH(3) emission, nitrophytic species are excluded from the calculation of lichen diversity values.

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants / metabolism*
Ammonia / metabolism
Biodiversity
Energy-Generating Resources*
Environmental Monitoring / methods*
Hydrogen Sulfide / metabolism*
Lichens / classification
Lichens / metabolism*
Power Plants

Substances

Air Pollutants
Ammonia
Hydrogen Sulfide