Numerous studies have been devoted to the impact of air pollutants on pollens but in contrast, only few works are available on the use of pollen to evaluate atmospheric pollution (i.e. pollen as bioindicator). Pollen as other plant or animal bioindicators, does not provide information on absolute concentrations of pollutants in the air, however, it indicates, with accuracy, their relative levels. Bioindicators can give relevant information on pollutants: their identities, their levels and their geographical localisation, and may eventually help us drawing pollution maps. Actually, the methods using plants for biomonitoring of air quality may turn out to be successful, as they are simple, cheap and fast and can supplement the classical physico-chemical methods. This small paper discusses the possibilities of using pollen for air pollution biomonitoring; the advantages and limitations of methods using pollen as the biomonitor to evaluate air quality are also described in this paper.

URL: http://isebindia.com/05_08/06-04-1.html