Correlation between chlorophyll degradation and the amount of heavy metals found in pseudevernia furfuracea in kayseri (Turkey)

Abstract

Air pollution and associated heavy metal pollution, is an important environmental problem. One of the methods used to monitor heavy pollution in the air is the method of transplanting lichen samples by the bag technique. In this study, Pseudevernia furfuracea was used as a bioindicator to determine the heavy metal level of air pollution heavy metal level in Kayseri and to generate an air pollution map of the city. The lichen samples were collected from the Yaprakli̇ Mountains in Çanki̇ri̇ in 2002 and transplanted to 10 different stations in Kayseri. Lichen samples were re-collected at two different periods in three month intervals. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometry was used to identify the heavy metals, such as Cu, Cd, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn in the lichen samples. The chlorophyll a and b contents were determined by using the DMSO method. With these values chlorophyll a+b, a/b and b/a were also calculated. According to the heavy metal analysis results of Pseudevernia furfuracea, which worked well as a bioindicator, air pollution in Kayseri due to industry, heating and traffic was observed. The concentration of Cd at the 3rd and 9th station, Cu concentration at the 1st and 8th station, Mn concentration at the 3rd and 10th and Pb concentration at the 3rd, 8th and 10th station were considerably high. In addition to these, the concentration of Zn was observed high at 9th station.