Air pollution is defined as the presence of a substance in the atmosphere
that is harmful to human health, living things,and/or has
a negative impact on the environment.A plant
such as Tillandsiarecurvata,
ball moss, could be used as an inexpensive biological indicator for urban pollution.
The purpose of this research was to determine if ball moss could be used as a biological
indicator of urban pollution and retain oil pollution. Multiple siteswere identified
and grouped by vehicular traffic frequency (counts) using the Louisiana State Department
of Transportation and Development (LaDOTD) traffic data to randomly select five
low (0.0-7000), and five medium/high frequency (7001 to >14,000) traffic countsin locations
withinBaton Rouge, La. city limits. Differential analysis determined that harvested
ball mosstissue levels from areas with low traffic (<0.05 level) contained lower
S concentrations than plants tested from high traffic counts. In a second study,
dried Tillandsia recurvata plant tissue accumulated greater oil weight than
absorbent paper towels. Tillandsia recurvata absorbed and/or retained oil
at a greater ratio of oil than its own mass. Therefore,the results
of each experiment indicated that Tillandsia recurvata may successfully function
as a biological indicator
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