On August 8, a research group of Professor Yoshitaka Oishi of Fukui Prefectural University and Professor Tsutomu Hiura of Hokkaido University announced that they have developed a method for efficiently evaluating the atmospheric environment of a city using moss plants.
Since moss has a simple body structure, it is sensitive to changes in the environment, especially the atmospheric environment.On the other hand, various air environmental problems such as air pollution are occurring in urban areas.In order to improve this, it is first necessary to correctly evaluate the atmospheric environment, and as one of the methods, there are advantages such as low cost, so biological indicators using biological reactions are attracting attention.
This time, the research group conducted a survey using moss as a biological indicator.Four types of air environmental problems in Hachioji, Tokyo "Severity of nitrogen pollution" "Degree of nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution" "Air cleanliness" Drying due to urbanization (= distribution of species vulnerable to drying) ) ”Was evaluated.As a result, when moss was used, an effective model was obtained for items other than "air cleanliness".
This proves the effectiveness of moss on environmental problems, and is expected to lead to the promotion of evaluation of the atmospheric environment in cities and the decision of actions and policies to improve the environmental load.
Paper information:[Landscape and Urban Planning] Bryophytes as bioindicators of the atmospheric environment in urban-forest landscapes
