Determination of Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Trace Element Levels Using Moss Biomonitoring: A Case Study of Kocaeli

Mosses are frequently preferred as biomonitors due to their distribution over wide areas and their underdeveloped structure compared to vascular plants. In this study, the concentration values of atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and trace elements in Kocaeli province were investigated using Hypnum cupressiforme Hedw. collected from 52 localities and Pseudoscleropodium purum (Hedw.) M.Fleisch. collected from 22 localities. The analysis of trace elements in these species was carried out by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and PAH analyses were carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). As a result of the study, the average PAH concentration value was determined to be 193.84 ng/g, and the two compounds with the highest values were phenanthrene (60.98 ng/g) and benzo[k]fluorene (22.60 ng/g), respectively. In the trace element analysis results, aluminum had the highest value with 4639.87 µg/g, while cadmium was the heavy metal with the lowest accumulation with 0.3 µg/g. It was determined that the concentration values were ranked from largest to smallest as Al>Fe>Zn>Cu>Cr>Pb>Ni>V>Sn>Co>Mo>As>Sb>Hg>Cd. The relationships between tracers and PAHs were examined using Pearson correlation analysis (SPSS Version 19.0), and it was determined that a significant relationship existed between the two. We compared the accumulation concentrations of H. cupressiforme and P. purum samples using a t-test. As a result of the t-test analysis, it was determined that there was a statistically significant difference between the two species for all parameters except benz[a]anthracene and benzo[a]pyrene, and H. cupressiforme accumulated more.