Monitoring H2S air pollution caused by the industrial exploitation of geothermal energy: the pitfall of using lichens as bioindicators.
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.
Loppi
Stefano
S
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy. loppi@unisi.it
Nascimbene
Juri
J
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000378:metabolism*; D000641:Ammonia / Q000378:metabolism; D044822:Biodiversity; D004736:Energy-Generating Resources; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006862:Hydrogen Sulfide / Q000378:metabolism*; D008011:Lichens / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism*; D011210:Power Plants
D000393:Air Pollutants; D000641:Ammonia; D006862:Hydrogen Sulfide