Number 22, October 2001 N EWSLETTER OF THEP INE M OUNTAIN G ROTTO
October, 2014 Newsletter Issue 5 -...
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1 Issue 5 October, 2014 N ewsletter Welcome to the fifth newsletter for the MOSSCLONE project which is financed by the EU Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme. The aim of this project is to develop and implement a method to control the air quality by using a devitalized moss clone as passive contaminant sensor. The project encompasses the hard work of more than 30 experts from 11 organisations representing 5 EU countries (Spain, Italy, France, Ireland and Germany). This newsletter introduces the 3 rd WP leaders meeting of the MOSSCLONE project. This fifth newsletter is dedicated to describe our latest achievements and to detail our planned steps for the last months of MOSSCLONE project development. The tasks are being carried out at the appropriate time and with the expected results. We can say that Europe is close to have an important tool for measuring any kind of air pollution anywhere. The MOSSCLONE Newsletter is published twice a year and edited by the Project Manager. If you wish to be included or taken off the distribution list, please contact him (carlosbrais. [email protected]). Edited by Carlos Carballeira What is MOSSCLONE? Two European Directives on ambient air quality assessment (96/62/EC of 27 September 1996 and 2008/50/EC of May 2008) obliges the Member States to deliver periodically precise information about the air quality and the related health within their territories to ensure that the European population is aware of it. For compliance to both Directives, States usually use monitoring stations, but these stations are only useful when macro-pollutants are assessed in agglomerations. For measurement of other pollutants included in the Directives there are technical difficulties and their analysis on air is too expensive. As a consequence there is a lack of representative data through Europe. In addition, data from automatic devices are accurate but too limited in number of pollutants and to describe spatio-temporal trends of pollutants. Due to the limitations of traditional methods, bio-monitoring is an adequate alternative to acquire data about the levels of pollutants that affect European citizens and makes it possible to evaluate the state of environmental parameters influenced by synergistic effects of different pollutants. Among the available bio-monitors, terrestrial mosses are especially adequate for air quality assessment due to their high efficiency in loading both particulate and gaseous determinants of organic, inorganic, and radioactive pollutants. However, there are some problems that can arise when using mosses for the current moss-bag technique: the absence of well-suited moss species living in urban, extra-urban, and even indoor reference environments; the bags are prepared from mosses naturally grown in unpolluted areas, so its availability and the natural variability on moss elemental composition could vary depending on natural and anthropogenic causes. The solution to avoid these problems is to cultivate in the laboratory a moss clone to always have homogeneous material with the same initial concentrations to prepare the bags. In this way, a high degree of standardization would be reached and would allow a comparison of the exposed mosses in the same way by means of Enrichment Factor or Net Enrichment. An additional, but highly relevant problem that usually affects the use of bio- monitors is the lack of standardized protocols and methodologies. The lack of such protocols hampers comparison of the results obtained in different studies, and sometimes limits the conclusions that can be reached. The MOSSCLONE approach would overcome all these issues, thereby improving data quality and reproducibility, and therefore usability of environmental data collected throughout Europe.
Transcript of October, 2014 Newsletter Issue 5 -...
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Issue 5
October, 2014
Newsletter
Welcome to the fifth newsletter for the MOSSCLONE project which is financed by the EU Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme. The aim of this project is to develop and implement a method to control the air quality by using a devitalized moss clone as passive contaminant sensor.
The project encompasses the hard work of more than 30 experts from 11 organisations representing 5 EU countries (Spain, Italy, France, Ireland and Germany).
This newsletter introduces the 3rd WP leaders meeting of the MOSSCLONE project. This fifth newsletter is dedicated to describe our latest achievements and to detail our planned steps for the last months of MOSSCLONE project development.
The tasks are being carried out at the appropriate time and with the expected results. We can say that Europe is close to have an important tool for measuring any kind of air pollution anywhere.
The MOSSCLONE Newsletter is published twice a year and edited by the Project Manager. If you wish to be included or taken off the distribution list, please contact him ([email protected]).
Edited by Carlos Carballeira
What is MOSSCLONE?Two European Directives on ambient air quality assessment (96/62/EC of 27 September 1996 and 2008/50/EC of May 2008) obliges the Member States to deliver periodically precise information about the air quality and the related health within their territories to ensure that the European population is aware of it.For compliance to both Directives, States usually use monitoring stations, but these stations are only useful when macro-pollutants are assessed in agglomerations. For measurement of other pollutants included in the Directives there are technical diff iculties and their analysis on air is too expensive. As a consequence there is a lack of representative data through Europe. In addition, data from automatic devices are accurate but too limited in number of pollutants and to describe spatio-temporal trends of pollutants.Due to the limitations of traditional methods, bio-monitoring is an adequate alternative to acquire data about the levels of pollutants that affect European citizens and makes it possible to evaluate the state of environmental parameters inf luenced by synergistic effects of different pollutants.Among the available bio-monitors, terrestrial mosses are especially adequate for air quality assessment due to their high eff iciency in loading both particulate and gaseous determinants of organic, inorganic, and radioactive pollutants.However, there are some problems that can arise when using mosses for the current moss-bag technique: the absence of well-suited moss species living in urban, extra-urban, and even indoor reference environments; the bags are prepared from mosses naturally grown in unpolluted areas, so its availability and the natural variability on moss elemental composition could vary depending on natural and anthropogenic causes.The solution to avoid these problems is to cultivate in the laboratory a moss clone to always have homogeneous material with the same initial concentrations to prepare the bags. In this way, a high degree of standardization would be reached and would allow a comparison of the exposed mosses in the same way by means of Enrichment Factor or Net Enrichment.An additional, but highly relevant problem that usually affects the use of bio-monitors is the lack of standardized protocols and methodologies. The lack of such protocols hampers comparison of the results obtained in different studies, and sometimes limits the conclusions that can be reached. The MOSSCLONE approach would overcome all these issues, thereby improving data quality and reproducibility, and therefore usability of environmental data collected throughout Europe.
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This work was carried out as part of WP1 (Management). This meeting took place on the 19th and 20th of September (2014) at the Orion headquarters, located in Veggiano, city close to Padua. All the attendants were accommodated in Abano terme, famous for its thermal baths. The meeting had a very light discussion because WP2 and WP3 are already finished and few preliminary results from WP4 have been obtained so far. Moreover, meetings with a low numbers of attendants are easily coordinated and decisionmaking is much more effective. Partners met each other, presented the new MOSSCLONE advances and clarified the doubts they had from the previous meeting.
ORION was the partner in charge of this WP leaders meeting. The meeting ended as a productive and friendly event where the finished and current activites were discussed and the expectations of all attendees were fullfilled. The meeting was one day of presentations and discussions, and half day of fieldtrip. The fieldtrip consisted on a bus trip to Padua. The meeting attendants visited the Cappella degli Scrovegni and the old and new botanical gardens from this city. The different discussion topics of the agenda were debated by all partners, same as previous meetings (see page 4).
3rd WP leaders meeting at Abano Terme (Italy)
RECENT MOSSCLONE EVENTS
Project AchievementsThe MOSSCLONE project has already achieved the following
objectives:
√ Selection of moss species on the basis of their use as bio-monitor, their distribution and their physico-chemical characteristics.√ Creating a pilot bioreactor for the cultivation and the selection of the most suitable species.√ Characterization of the selected moss clone.√ Scaling up moss clone cultivation.√ Design and methodological standardization of the moss-bag technique. Moss-bags validation versus current state-of-the-art methods for air pollution monitoring. Perform an initial validation of its usefulness for the detection of atmospheric small scale pollution focus.
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AGENDAFriday 19thMorning9:00-9:15 Registration9:15-9:30 Welcome address (ORION)9:30- 10:00 WP2: Results obtained from the clone (AMRA)- Molecular characterization (summary)- Multi-elemental characterization of the moss clone 10:00-10:10 WP3: Update of Scaling up and clone moss-bag preparation (task 3.6 and task 3.7)(BIOVIA)10:10-10:30 WP3: Standardization assays conclusions (BIOVIA)10:40-11:20 WP4 General Presentation, preliminary results and WP4 developments (ORION) -Sampling locations -Sampling devices -Climate conditions11:00-11:30 Coffee break11:30-11:45 WP4: moss clone bags vs bulk deposition (task 4.1) (ORION)11:45-12:00 WP4: sheltered moss clone bags vs particle samplers (task 4.2) (ORION)12:00-12:15 WP4: sheltered moss clone bags vs diffusers and particle samplers (task 4.3) (ORION)12:15-12:30 WP4: Method to detect small scale pollution focus (task 4.4) (ORION)12:30- 14:30 Lunch BreakAfternoon14:30-14:40 Project management summary (deliverables and timetable) (Carlos Carballeira)14:40-15:30 Exploitation and dissemination (Ralf Reski, Consortium discussion)- Last Dissemination activities (video, MEP`s,…) - Patenting conditions16:15-16:40 Coffee break 16:40-18:00 General conclusions and summary
Saturday 20thMorningFIELDTRIP
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Moss characterization
Multi-element
Molecular
There were no differences on metal concentration between clone lines, both treated and untreated clones. However, EDTA makes the difference between treated and untreated clones because this chelating agent adds some elements to the clone.
Microsatellite analysis of 15 regions evidenced 4 polymorphic loci characterising the clone. RFLP-PCR of RAPDf region and DNA amplification provided a total of 16 and 9 reproducible bands and loci, respectively, of which 7 of each are polymorphic. Three barcoding DNA regions - matK, rbcL and psbA-trnH - were sequenced revealing 2 SNPs.
Scaling up of productionThe moss cultivation on biorreactors has been really improved during the last year. Each biorreactor from Biovia is currently producing 118g of dry moss every month. This means that around half kilogram of dry moss is obtained every month which is the same than 156 mosspheres. This is a very good optimization of the method because we have to remember the growing conditions we had at the beginning of the scaling up activity.
Mosspheres development
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WP4 DetectorsSamples from cloned Sphagnum palustre were exposed together with traditional techniques; standard bulk deposition collectors, particle samplers and gaseous samplers. The experiments from WP4 (Detectors) are almost finished. The activity 4.4.3. (Testing the method with small scale pollution focus) will be done during November and December (2014) in order to have the results from this activity before the end of the project. It is important to highlight the results obtained when comparing the mossclone and the bulk precipitation because both techniques showed a similar pattern. This is a wonderful result but it requires a statistical analysis to know if the correlation between both techniques is significant or not.We have also found high levels of some metals in the clean moss that should not be there because these elemnets are not added at any moment of the growing method.
WP3 ConclusionsWP3 experiments for the standardization of the moss exposure protocol have already finished and the results have been analyzed. The most appropriate accumulation parameters are shown in the table below.
2 mm
Mossphere
Mesh 2 mm
Shape Mossphere
Weight 15 mg/cm2
Optimal height
4 meters
Time exposure 6 weeks
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Distribution of differences (4.4.1 and 4.42.)
Forcarei A Fonsagrada Montes Leboreirón
3 sites
3 sites
4 sites
A total of 20 Pairs of sampling sites (10 in Spain and 10 in Italy) were selected to study the distribution of the differences in concentration between pairs of samples separated by a short distance (1km) in zones that are assumed to be unpolluted. This study will allow us to know which differences in accumulation are due to the presence of contamination and not simply to variability of the data. For this purpose, spanish sampling points were placed at different hunting areas because this zones are usually not affected by pollution sources and are patrolled by rangers. The maps with the location of spanish and italian sampling points are shown below together with some pictures.
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Find out more on our website
www.mossclone.eu
MOSSCLONE Dissemination
FORTHCOMING MEETING
Tasks
- Up-scaling moss cultivation
- Full characterization of the clone
- Relationships between
the mosspheres and the
traditional techniques
CurrentRecent Upcoming
- Development of a method to detect atmospheric small scale pollution focus- Life cycle assessment
Final meeting
The next and the last social event will be the final meeting that will take place the 9th, 10th and 11th of March (2015) at Naples (Italy), hosted by AMRA.
The main goal of our dissemination strategy is to include the mossphere in the National and European legislations so that the mossphere method will be used and recognized as a valid monitoring method. We are currently on the right track because results from the different studies have already proved that the mossphere shows semiquantitatively the contamination of the study areas.
AcknowledgementsThe MOSSCLONE team would like to thank the people, authorities and companies which allow us to leave the moss samples in their facilities; Santiago de Compostela city council, Couceiro bookstore, Forcarei and Montes de Leboreirón hunting grounds, Innova Dental dental clinic, Saviñao EMEP station,...
