title: Spatial analysis of trace elements in a moss bio-monitoring data over France by accounting for source, protocol and environmental parameters.
abstract: Air pollution in trace elements (TE) remains a concern for public health in Europe. For this reasons, networks of air pollution concentrations or exposure are deployed, including a moss bio-monitoring programme in Europe. Spatial determinants of TE concentrations in mosses remain unclear. In this study, the French dataset of TE in mosses is analyzed by spatial autoregressive model to account for spatial structure of the data and several variables proven or suspected to affect TE concentrations in mosses. Such variables include source (atmospheric deposition and soil concentrations), protocol (sampling month, collector, and moss species), and environment (forest type and canopy density, distance to the coast or the highway, and elevation). Modeled atmospheric deposition was only available for Cd and Pb and was one of the main explanatory variables of the concentrations in mosses. Predicted soil content was also an important explanatory variable except for Cr, Ni, and Zn. However, the moss species was the main factor for all the studied TE. The other environmental variables affected differently the TE. In particular, the forest type and canopy density were important in most cases. These results stress the need for further research on the effect of the moss species on the capture and retention of TE, as well as for accounting for several variables and the spatial structure of the data in statistical analyses.
authors.affiliation: Natural Heritage Department, National Museum of Natural History, 12 Rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris, France. Electronic address: e.lequy@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Emeline
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lequy
authors.affiliation: Infosol, US 1106, INRA Val-de-Loire, Orléans, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas P A
authors.initials: NPA
authors.lastname: Saby
authors.affiliation: Meteorological Synthesising Centre East of EMEP, Krasina pereulok, 16/1, 123056 Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Ilia
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ilyin
authors.affiliation: Mines Douai, Département Sciences de l'Atmosphère et Génie de l'Environnement, SAGE, F-59508 Douai, France.
authors.forename: Aude
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bourin
authors.affiliation: Mines Douai, Département Sciences de l'Atmosphère et Génie de l'Environnement, SAGE, F-59508 Douai, France.
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sauvage
authors.affiliation: Natural Heritage Department, National Museum of Natural History, 12 Rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leblond
keywords: Autocorrelation; Cadmium; ICP-vegetation; Lead; Spatial autoregressive model