IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i12p7254-d838065.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Biomonitoring Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) Using Lichen Transplant Usnea misaminensis : A Case Study from Malaysia

Author

Listed:
  • Azlan Abas

    (Centre for Research in Development, Social & Environment (SEEDS), Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Malaysia)

  • Kadaruddin Aiyub

    (Centre for Research in Development, Social & Environment (SEEDS), Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Malaysia)

  • Azahan Awang

    (Centre for Research in Development, Social & Environment (SEEDS), Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Malaysia)

Abstract

Urban air pollution has been a major concern due to its impact on global public health. Various techniques for monitoring urban air quality have been developed. However, there is currently a dearth of research on how effective bioaccumulators such as lichen are at monitoring urban air pollution. As a result, the purpose of this research is to investigate the use of U. misaminensis as a biological indicator for biomonitoring urban air quality in Malaysia. Three months were spent exposing lichen samples in three Malaysian cities (Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Johor Bahru). The trace element content and vitality of the lichens were assessed. The results of this study revealed that U. misaminensis is an effective biological indicator for measuring 25 elements of air pollutants in metropolitan areas. They also revealed that all 25 elements accumulated in the urban area sample were greater than in the control sample. The vitality rate of lichens dropped in the urban area sample when compared with the control sample, indicating that an increase in elements in the air will impact the vitality rate of any biological component. In this study, two arguments are made: (a) Lichen is an excellent biological indicator, particularly for urban air pollutants such as potentially toxic elements; and (b) traffic is the primary contributor to urban air pollution; hence, the local government requires a better plan and design for urban areas to decrease air pollutants build-up.

Suggested Citation

  • Azlan Abas & Kadaruddin Aiyub & Azahan Awang, 2022. "Biomonitoring Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) Using Lichen Transplant Usnea misaminensis : A Case Study from Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-10, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:12:p:7254-:d:838065
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/12/7254/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/12/7254/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sharifah Nur Amalina Syed Salleh & Azlan Abas, 2023. "Monitoring Heavy Metal Concentrations Using Transplanted Lichen in a Tourism City of Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-12, March.
    2. Emylia Shakira Jamean & Azlan Abas, 2023. "Valuation of Visitor Perception of Urban Forest Ecosystem Services in Kuala Lumpur," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:12:p:7254-:d:838065. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.