Ivestigation of air quality of kocaeli region using mosses

Biomonitors are widely used in air quality studies because of their cheap and practical applications. Since their poorly developed structures and wide distributions, mosses are better biomonitors than the higher plants. With this study, atmospheric PAH and heavy metal concentrations of Kocaeli province were investigated by using two moss species. 52 Hypnum cupressiforme Hedw. and 22 Pseudoscleropodium purum (Hedw.) M. Fleisch., total 74 moss specimens were collected from 52 predetermined sites between May-June 2016. PAH and heavy metal concentrations were determined using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometer (ICP-MS), respectively. According to the results, the average PAH concentration in Kocaeli region was found as 193.84 ng/g. In addition, the predominant compounds in the research area were PHE (60.98 ng/g) and BkF (22.60 ng/g), respectively. The source analysis of PAHs was performed using diagnostic ratios and the results revealed that these compounds may be originated from industrial activity and traffic. As a result of the heavy metal analysis, it was determined that the highest accumulation belonged to aluminum with 4639.87 μg/g and the least accumulation belonged to cadmium with 0.3 μg/g. When ordered from high to low concentration values, it was observed that the metals arranged as Al> Fe> Zn> Cu> Cr> Pb> Ni> V> Sn> Co> Mo> As> Sb> Hg> Cd. The relationships between PAHs and heavy metals were investigated by using Pearson correlation analysis (SPSS Version 16.0) and statistically significant relationships between PAH and heavy metals were found. In addition, the results obtained from Hypnum cupressiforme and Pseudoscleropodium purum samples collected from the same points were compared using t test and regression analysis.