Determination of atmospheric pollution around the thermoelectric power plant using a moss biomonitoring

To establish the level of atmospheric deposition of heavy metals in Bitola and its environs, Republic of Macedonia, biomonitoring moss technique was applied. Moss samples were collected from 38 locations in the area of 1,400 km(2). About 60 elements were analyzed by the application of inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and atomic emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-AES). The obtained results of the investigated elements were statistically processed, and the maps of areal distribution were prepared. Two geogenic (F1 and F4) and two anthropogenic geochemical associations (F2 and F3) were determine: F1 (Al, As, Ba, Be, Bi, Co, Cr, Cs, Fe, Ga, Ge, Hf, In, Li, Ni, Rb, Sc, Sr, Ta, Te, Tl, V, Y, Zr, lanthanides and platinum group metals); F2 (Ag, Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb, Sn and Zn); F3 (B, Ca, K, Mg, Na and P) and F4 (Nb, Sb and W). On the basis of visual inspection of similarities of spatial distribution of element patterns, comparison of basic statistical parameters, the correlation coefficient matrices and the results of multivariate statistical analyses were established. Arsenic was a special case; it was the only element that illustrates the operation of open pit brown coal mining and thermoelectric power plant (REK-Bitola).