title: Do mosses exist outside of Europe? A biomonitoring reflection.
abstract: The passive moss biomonitoring technique has been proved a useful environmental tool for the study of the air quality. However, after more than 40years of its discovery, it has not been used yet in decision making when dealing with atmospheric pollution. Scientific efforts and funding are wasted when these sort of findings do not have a meaningful impact on society. Thus, the aim of this review is to showcase the reasons preventing the worldwide application of the moss technique. The results showed that the possible reasons underlying this problem are the lack of standardization of the technique, transmission of a false idea of robustness, and the lack of a theoretical background. Knowing and accepting these problems is the first step to encourage scientists and funding bodies to invest their efforts in really improving the technique for its application in environmental policies and not only in scientific circles.
authors.affiliation: Ecología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Electronic address: teresaboquete@ebd.csic.es.
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Boquete
authors.affiliation: Ecología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Aboal
authors.affiliation: Ecología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carballeira
authors.affiliation: Ecología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Fernández
mesh_terms: D000397:Air Pollution; D044002:Bryophyta; D000074062:Environmental Biomarkers; D005060:Europe
chemical_list: D000074062:Environmental Biomarkers
keywords: Air quality; Decision-making; Passive moss biomonitoring