title: Environmental specimen banking of nationwide biomonitoring samples in Finland.
abstract: An environmental specimen bank was built in 1994 by the Finnish Forest Research Institute. The main material stored is moss samples collected from the permanent nationwide sampling network every five years since 1985 for both national and international heavy metal surveys. Correspondingly there are nationwide biomonitoring samples of epiphytic lichen, pine bark and humus for surveying atmospheric heavy metal deposition. The bank is also storage of forest litter collected from 1960's onwards. This large material, tens of thousands of sorted samples, is valuable for indicating environmental changes of the forest ecosystem.
authors.affiliation: Forest Research Institute, Muhos Research Station, Finland.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kubin
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lippo
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Karhu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Poikolainen
mesh_terms: D000047:Academies and Institutes; D018070:Biological Specimen Banks; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D005387:Finland; D016468:Forestry
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants