Integrated biomonitoring of air quality with plants and lichens: A case study on ambient ozone from central Italy C. Nali a , E. Balducci a , L. Frati b , L. Paoli b , S. Loppi b , G. Lorenzini a, * a Dipartimento di Coltivazione e Difesa Specie Legnose ‘‘G. Scaramuzzi’’, Universita ` di Pisa, Via del Borghetto 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy b Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali ‘‘G. Sarfatti’’, Universita ` di Siena, Via P.A. Mattioli 4, 53100 Siena, Italy Received 26 July 2006; received in revised form 7 November 2006; accepted 11 December 2006 Available online 30 January 2007 Abstract A biennial integrated survey, based on the use of vascular plants for the bioindication of the effects of tropospheric ozone together with the use of automatic analysers of ozone, as well as the mapping of lichen biodiversity was performed in the area of Castelfiorentino (Tuscany, central Italy). Photochemically produced ozone proved to be a fundamental presence during the warm season, with maximum hourly means reaching 114 ppb, exceeding the information threshold as fixed by EU: the use of supersensitive tobacco Bel-W3 confirmed the opportunity of carrying out detailed cost-effective monitoring surveys. The potential for didactical and educational implications of this methodology are appealing. Critical levels set up for the protection of vegetation have exceeded considerably. The comparison of biomass productivity in sensitive and resistant individuals (NC-S and NC-R white clover clones, in the framework of an European net- work) provided evidence that ambient ozone levels are associated with relevant reduction (up to 30%) in the performance of sensitive material; effects on flowering were also pronounced. The economic assessment of such an impact deserves attention. Mapping of epi- phytic lichen biodiversity – which has been used to monitor air quality worldwide – was not related to ozone geographical distribution as depicted by tobacco response. Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Air pollution; Clover; Index lichen diversity; Tobacco 1. Introduction Continuous measurement by physicochemical methods using stationary or mobile automatic gauges is the major source of information on atmospheric pollution. These measurements are essential to define the ambient concen- trations of contaminants, but, conversely, are of minimal use to evaluate their biological impact. As an example, economic damage caused by a reduced performance of cul- tivated plants exposed to pollutants can hardly be pre- dicted by any non-living item. Moreover, purchasing and maintenance of automatic gauges is quite expensive and environmental authorities can hardly monitor enough sites to warrant an adequate cover of the area of their compe- tence, and normally only urban areas are monitored. Although about 80% of the European Union’s population lives in urban areas (http://www.worldbank.org/data/), which are therefore the place where environmental prob- lems most affect the quality of life of citizens, air pollution is not confined to urban areas. Another crucial point is worthy of attention: sustainable development is currently an imperative task for all decision makers and opinion leaders: one of its key elements is the active participation of citizens in environmental issues, such as monitoring of air quality. Under this viewpoint, biological monitoring (biomonitoring) of air quality is a politically correct approach, which allows direct and active involvement of people in detecting the condi- tions of the environment. Particularly, the use of plants for environmental diagnosis should be regarded as a neces- sary complementary tool to be integrated with classical 0045-6535/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2006.12.036 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 050 2210555; fax: +39 050 2210559. E-mail address: giacomo.lorenzini@agr.unipi.it (G. Lorenzini). www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere Chemosphere 67 (2007) 2169–2176