A Viable System of Biological Indicators For Monitoring Air Pollutants

An air pollution monitoring biological indicator (AMBI) system for ambient ozone was tested in the South Coast Air Basin of California during the 1972 fall growing season. The basic unit or AMBI station was an inexpensive, portable plant station which operated independent of power sources. Reliability of these units was excellent as only three instances of missing data were observed from 330 possibilities. A photo-reference system of ozone injury evaluation utilizing direct comparisons of injured leaves with reference photographs was successful in standardizing assessments of ozone injury. Average weekly injury indices for field locations were correlated with average weekly ozone dosages and were found to be significant at the .01 level.