Air pollution has been recognised as the worlds top problem in many strategic environmental policies. However, it is still inadequately corroborated by regulatory monitoring due to the balance between costs and practicable constraints. The variability in air pollution patterns additionally emphasises a need for feasible approaches to extensive screening of pollutants. To achieve highly temporally -- and spatially -- resolved measurements, biomonitoring (ie: the use of living organisms to determine changes in the environment has been utilised in the investigating of a complementary method to regulatory measurements). The book aims to give reviews of research over the last decade of the most recommended organisms for monitoring airborne inorganic and organic pollutants. Naturally growing mosses and lichens have been used as passive biomonitors of long-term atmospheric deposition of the pollutants across remote areas. To overcome scarcity of these biomonitors in anthropogenically devastated areas, an active biomonitoring approach has been investigated. Specifically, the use of moss and lichen bags represents a convenient technique for easily performed biomonitoring of short-term and small-scale pollutant distribution, especially in urban and industrial areas. As a new direction in biomonitoring, magnetic properties of the biomonitors have been investigated as a valuable proxy for ambient particle pollution. This book moves beyond the attempt to promote biomonitoring as an effective approach for screening air quality that should be considered for implementation into laws and regulations against air pollution. Finally, the authors review the latest research in the field of air pollution biomonitoring, which is vital for everyone engaged in solving environmental issues.

A comprehensive, up-to-date review of lichens as biomonitors of air pollution (bioindication, metal and radionuclide accumulation, biomarkers), and as monitors of environmental change (including global climate change and biodiversity loss) in a wide array of terrestrial habitats. Several methods for using lichens as biomonitors are described in a special section of the book.

Table of contents

The book embodies the detailed account about unique symbionts i.e. LICHENS in ecosystem monitoring. The first chapter deals with unique characteristics features of lichens which facilitate their survival in extreme climates and makes them an ideal organism for ecosystem monitoring. Biosynthesis of secondary metabolites are known to protect lichens against increasing environmental stresses therefore second chapter provides insight into various chromatographic and modern spectroscopic techniques involved in separation and characterization of lichen substances. The third chapter elaborates the criteria for selection of biomonitoring species and characters of host plant that influences lichen diversity and details about different lichen species utilized for biomonitoring. One can retrieve preliminary information about the air quality based on the lichen community structure and distribution of bioindicator species as lichen communities/indicator species provides valuable information about the natural/anthropogenic induced changes in the microclimate and land-use changes due to human activity. Therefore, for identification of species, a key to genera and species provides concise information to identify the lichen species based on their morphological and anatomical characters and chemicals present. Keys provided in Chapter 4 will help the beginners to identify some common lichen species based on the distribution in different climatic zones of India. The section also provides comprehensive information about the bioindicator communities and bioindicator species from India. Chapter 5 provides the details of factors affecting the ecosystem (natural as well as anthropogenic disturbances) and role of lichens in ecosystem monitoring in India has been discussed in detail. Chapter 6 discusses the need and utility of indicator species especially lichen biomonitoring data in sustainable forest management and conservation. The content about lichens in biomonitoring will be a valuable resource for researchers from different fields and will provide an essential reference for people interested in lichens and its role in ecosystem monitoring. The book will also hopefully popularize lichenological studies in India and will generate more active participation of lichen biomonitoring studies in management and conservation of natural resources in India.

In the past two decades there has been an increasing public awareness of the hazards that exist from the contamination of the environment by toxic substances. 'Heavy metals' and the terrestrial environment are but one facet of the impact of toxic substances on the natural environment, and the use of biological materials for indicating the occurrence of, and continually monitoring the presence of, these materials is a specific topic which is of considerable interest to a diverse range of individuals, organisations and disciplines. It was our intention when we first en visaged this book that it should contain a description of a range of circumstances in which biological monitoring techniques have been employed in the terrestrial environment and that it should be seen as a practical text which dealt with the merits, shortcomings and suitability of biological monitoring materials. Monitoring is, however, a manifold process. It serves not only to provide information on past and present concentrations of toxic materials in various components of the environ ment, but also to provide information on the processes of environmental release, transport, accumulation and toxicity. Indeed, this may be one of the greatest virtues of biological monitoring over other forms of monitor ing. According to the skill of the staff employed in the monitoring procedure, the information that is accrued can have a vastly different value.

This handbook is an indispensable tool for the isolation, identification and structural analysis of the approx. 700 substances currently known to occur in lichens. The first part covers all necessary methods for the analysis of lichen metabolites; the second part gives the analytical and spectroscopical data of all known lichen substances as well as a key to their identification and differentiation. Besides its high value for all chemists working with these substances as a basis for other products, the book serves as a chemotaxonomical key to the identification of lichen species and as a reference for all those who use lichens for the biomonitoring of environmental pollution.