Determination of the optimal size of area to be sampled by use of the moss biomonitoring technique |
| |
| Authors: | Zulema Varela J A Fernández J R Aboal C Real A Carballeira |
| |
| Institution: | 1.área de Ecología, Departamento de Biología Celular y Ecología, Facultad de Biología,University Santiago de Compostela,Santiago de Compostela,Spain;2.área de Ecología, Departamento de Biología Celular y Ecología, Escuela Politécnica Superior,University Santiago de Compostela,Lugo,Spain |
| |
| Abstract: | The aim of the present study was to determine the optimal size of the sampling area that should be used in the moss biomonitoring
technique, in relation to the spatial variation in the concentrations of contaminants determined in samples collected within
short distances (<30 m). For this, the spatial structure in the concentrations of various metals and metalloids was explored
by use of semivariograms calculated by use of a robust estimator of the variance. In each of the 3 sampling sites considered
in the study (one sampled on two occasions), 50 samples of the moss Pseudoscleropodium purum were collected and the tissue concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Hg, K, Ni, Pb, Se and Zn were determined. The results obtained
show that in most cases (25 out of 32), there was no spatial structure in the concentrations of the elements and that the
semivariograms were subject to the nugget effect. For those elements for which spatial independence or a linear spatial structure
was observed, the size of the sampling area did not affect the results, and the dimensions were irrelevant within the range
studied. The existence of spatial structure, which can be fitted to a spherical model, enabled a range of autocorrelation
to be defined, which corresponded to an area of diameter >16 m. The proposed method must be applied to other species and in
other regions, in order to standardize the size of the sampling sites in the moss biomonitoring technique. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录！ |
|
