Towards an interpretative framework for urban air quality biomonitoring using lichens: a meta-analysis of lichen surveys following the European protocol
(2024) IABEP — Location: Lisbonne (4.November.2024)
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- Air pollution poses a significant threat to both human and ecosystem health, particularly in urban areas where over half of the global population resides. Accurately assessing air quality is essential for understanding population exposure and mitigating its harmful effects. Studying epiphytic lichen communities constitutes a complementary approach to physico-chemical sensors by enhancing spatial resolution at a lower cost. In addition, each lichen species has a specific sensitivity to atmospheric pollutants, making it possible to identify the pollutants involved. Although a standardized European protocol has been developed for lichen sampling in urban areas, there is to date no unified interpretative framework for bioindication data, which limits the potential for large-scale application in air quality assessment. Currently, national lichen databases are used to calculate ecological indices and functional diversity metrics. However, these indices are not directly related to pollutants, making it difficult to understand specific effects, such as nitrogen pollutants (NOx and NH3) with contrasted effects on eutrophic lichen species. We thus propose a meta-analysis of bioindication surveys conducted using the European protocol. Our goal is to identify species that are highly indicative across Europe and easy to identify. We have currently collected raw data from 47 studies across 14 European countries, representing over 7000 sampled trees and 375 lichen taxa. By combining these data with European environmental databases (including air pollutant concentrations, climatic variables, and land cover information) and applying generalized linear mixed models, we aim to understand the key drivers influencing the frequency of each individual species across Europe. Through this study, we seek to lay the foundation for a new interpretative framework for the bioindication community, enabling more robust and scalable applications in urban air quality assessment.
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Counoy, H., Turcati, L., Bogaert, P., Agnan, Y., & et al. (2024). Towards an interpretative framework for urban air quality biomonitoring using lichens: a meta-analysis of lichen surveys following the European protocol. IABEP, Lisbonne. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/269541