Bioindcators and biofilters, especially lower plants, represent an efficient alternative for the monitoring of environmental quality. The advantage by using plants for recognition and evaluation of certain air pollutants consists in the relatively low cost installation and the revealing of the global situation of air pollution in a determined area, by adding up all the effects of the different pollutants. Moss bags containing Sphagnum Recurvum P. Beauv. were introduced as biofilters, according to the established moss-bag-method, for the heavy metalmonitoring realized during 1987 at the study area Serra do Mar/Cubatão, Brazil. First analytical results on the absolute and relative accumulation of some heavy metals (Al, Fe, Ni, Zn) are presented in ppm and percentage (%). The results confirm the excellent capacity os moss beeing used for surveying atmosferic pollutants.
Air pollution; Biomonitoring; Heavy metals; Moss-bag; Serra do Mar