Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
6.5
4.0
Journals
Plants
Special Issues
Biodiversity of Plants and Their Use in Biomonitoring and Environmental...
share announcement

Biodiversity of Plants and Their Use in Biomonitoring and Environmental Protection

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Response to Abiotic Stress and Climate Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 768

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Małgorzata Rajfur

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Biology, University of Opole, 45-032 Opole, Poland
Interests: biomonitoring with the use of algae; mosses and lichens; environmental monitoring; environmental chemistry; heavy metals; absorption atomic spectrometry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Paweł Świsłowski

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Biology, University of Opole, 45-032 Opole, Poland
Interests: biological monitoring; mosses; algae; air & water pollutants; heavy metals; microplastic; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; ecological chemistry

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The impact of environmental pollution on living organisms has been known for a long time, but it was only in the second half of the 20th century that methodical studies began to be carried out on the impact of anthropopressure on changes in ecosystems. Living organisms began to be used as biological indicators of environmental pollution. Cyclic and quantitative studies of pollutant concentrations in bioaccumulators became the basis of modern biological monitoring (biomonitoring) of environmental pollution.

Analysis of trace elements, including heavy metals, but also polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and microplastics accumulated in algae, mosses, or lichens used in biological monitoring provides a wealth of information on, among other things, the concentration and origin of pollutants and the directions of their spread. Biomonitoring is used to assess the level of pollution of selected ecosystems, as well as to study the impact of individual emitters on the environment. An important element in determining the concentrations of pollutants in biological material used in biomonitoring is the proper planning of the experiment, taking into account, among other things: the means of collecting or exposure samples, the selection of analytical methods, and the means of evaluating and interpreting the results.

The purpose of this special issue of Plants is to expand the current state of knowledge on topics related to the use of biological monitoring methods in assessing the state of environmental pollution. The topics of the issue include issues related to, among others, the biodiversity of selected ecosystems; the sorption properties of bioindicators and the possibility of their use in biomonitoring of environmental pollution; the use of plants in phytoremediation and environmental protection. The scope of the issue also includes issues of environmental bioanalysis in the broadest sense, using plants.

Prof. Dr. Małgorzata Rajfur
Dr. Paweł Świsłowski
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at mdpi.longhoe.net by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • plant biodiversity
  • environmental biomonitoring
  • environmental pollution
  • environmental protection
  • bioindicators

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

17 pages, 11827 KiB  
Article
Biomonitoring with the Use of the Herbal Plant Taraxacum officinale as a Source of Information on Environmental Contamination
by Zuzanna Respondek, Oznur Isinkaralar, Paweł Świsłowski, Kaan Isinkaralar and Małgorzata Rajfur
Plants 2024, 13(13), 1805; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13131805 - 29 Jun 2024
Viewed by 453
Abstract
The aim of this study was to assess the level of contamination of the common dandelion—Taraxacum officinale—with selected metals (Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb) and to demonstrate that this plant can be used in passive biomonitoring of [...] Read more.
The aim of this study was to assess the level of contamination of the common dandelion—Taraxacum officinale—with selected metals (Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb) and to demonstrate that this plant can be used in passive biomonitoring of industrial sites. Two sample transects (the first was near a forest, an area potentially uncontaminated by analytes [A], while the second ran near a steel mill, a contaminated area [B]), each about 1.5 km long, located in Ozimek, Opole Province, Poland, were used in this study. Metals in plant and soil samples were determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Based on the analysis of the obtained results to determine the concentration of metals, plants at site A were more contaminated with Mn (240 mg/kg d.m.) and those at site B with Fe (635 mg/kg d.m.). Mean Pb values (8.39 mg/kg d.m.) were higher at the industrial site (B) and statistically significant at the forest site (A), together with Mn and Fe at the p < 0.001 level. The BCF values for T. officinale showed that Cu (0.473) and Zn (0.785) accumulated to an average degree on both transects. This shows that dandelion is heavily loaded with these metals. Both dandelion and soil samples showed the highest concentrations of Mn, Fe, and Zn, especially in the polluted area B, which is the result of pollution not only from the smelter (dust from electric arc furnaces in steel smelting, extraction installations in production halls transmitting pollutants into the air from molding sand, or waste from molding and core masses dumped on the heap and blown by the wind from the landfill) but also from the high anthropopressure caused by human activity—for example, heating processes or road transport. Our results confirmed that Taraxacum officinale can be successfully used as a herbal plant in passive biomonitoring to assess the quality of the environment, but it must be collected from uncontaminated areas if we want to use it like a medicinal plant. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity of Plants and Their Use in Biomonitoring and Environmental Protection)
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-1
Back to TopTop