Ein Moosbiomonitoring zur Ermittlung atmosphärischer Elementeinträge in die Euroregion Neiße (D, PL, CZ)

This article describes a biomonitoring using mosses in order to determine the amount and distribution of the atmospheric deposition of 37 elements in the European region of the Neisse river following the political and economic changes. These results are compared with the findings in other regions. Additionally, the accumulation characteristics ofPleurozium schreberi andPolytrichum formosum, the two moss species used in the study, were compared with one another. Until the beginning of the 1990s, this region was part of the socalled “black triangle”, an area characterised by extremely high atmospheric dust pollution. Through the closing of numerous factories, the equipment of power plants with filters, and the decreasing importance of brown coal as a source of household heating, the situation has changed considerably. Today, the pollution levels in the European region of the Neisse river are comparable with those in the western part of Germany. Higher levels were only determined for Fe and Ti, which can be attributed to the broader usage of brown coal as a source of energy. In the area around Katowice, Poland, the levels of certain elements were found to be more than ten times higher than in the European region of the Neisse. These highly elevated levels of atmospheric contamination in the industrial district of Upper Silesia indicate that action is urgently needed.