Environ Monit Assess (2012) 184:527–538 DOI 10.1007/s10661-011-1985-y Atmospheric background trace elements deposition in Tierra del Fuego region (Patagonia, Argentina), using transplanted Usnea barbata lichens Marcelo Enrique Conti · Maria Grazia Finoia · Beatrice Bocca · Giustino Mele · Alessandro Alimonti · Anna Pino Received: 9 September 2010 / Accepted: 23 February 2011 / Published online: 16 March 2011 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 Abstract Lichen, Usnea barbata, transplants taken from Tierra del Fuego (south Patagonia, Argentina) were tested as potential biomonitors of at- mospheric airborne deposition in an apparently pristine environment. In 2005, lichens were sam- pled in a reference site (n = 31) and transplanted in the northern Region of Tierra del Fuego. After, respectively, 1 month and 1 year of exposure, we collected them. The aim of the study was to determine the bioaccumulation of 26 elements in order to evaluate the background levels in the se- lected area. Samples were analyzed by the sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrome- M. E. Conti (B) · G. Mele Department of Management and Technologies, Sapienza University of Rome, Via del Castro Laurenziano 9, 00161 Rome, Italy e-mail: marcelo.conti@uniroma1.it M. E. Conti International Academy of Environmental Sciences (IAES), Campo della Chiesa, 3 Sant’Elena, 30122 Venice, Italy M. G. Finoia Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA), Via di Casalotti 300, 00166 Rome, Italy B. Bocca · A. Alimonti · A. Pino Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena, Rome, Italy try. Discriminant analysis on principal component analysis factors was applied in order to explore the relationship among the different elements as far as time and spatial variation in transplants regards. The analysis was tested by Monte Carlo test based on 999 replicates. The most important contami- nation source resulted to be the atmospheric soil particle deposition. Furthermore, the results were compared with those obtained from the lichens collected in central and southern Tierra del Fuego. This study confirms the ability of U. barbata to reflect the background levels of the 26 elements in that environment. Compared with other back- ground sites in the world, we did confirm that Tierra del Fuego lichens have a low content of the studied elements. Tierra del Fuego turned out not to be a pristine environment as supposed, but it can be considered as a reference basal ecosystem for useful comparisons among different geograph- ical areas. These findings can be very relevant and useful for environmental conservation programs. Keywords Lichen transplants · Trace elements · Usnea barbata · Multivariate analysis · Tierra del Fuego Introduction Over the last decades, biomonitoring methods have been widely used. Direct analysis of abiotic