Atmospheric deposition of rare earth elements in Albania studied by the moss biomonitoring technique, neutron activation analysis and GIS technology

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 23; no. 14; pp. 14087 - 14101
• Main Authors: Allajbeu, Sh, Yushin, N. S., Qarri, F., Duliu, O. G., Lazo, P., Frontasyeva, M. V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.07.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Air Pollutants - analysis; Air pollution; Albania; Anthropogenic factors; Aquatic Pollution; Araneae; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Biomonitoring; Bryophyta - chemistry; Bryopsida; Chemistry; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental monitoring; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Environmental science; Geographic Information Systems; Geographical distribution; Hypnum cupressiforme; Lanthanides; Metals, Rare Earth - analysis; Mosses; Multivariate Analysis; Neutron Activation Analysis; Neutrons; Outdoor air quality; Rare earth elements; Remote sensing; Research Article; Soil contaminants; Studies; Trace elements; Vegetation; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Albania; ANE, Norway; Macedonia, Former Yugoslav Republic; Romania; Serbia; MED, Albania; Bulgaria; Spatial distribution; REEs; ENAA; Soil dust; GIS technology; Moss biomonitoring; Normalized pattern
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-016-6509-4

Rare earth elements (REEs) are typically conservative elements that are scarcely derived from anthropogenic sources. The mobilization of REEs in the environment requires the monitoring of these elements in environmental matrices, in which they are present at trace level. The determination of 11 REEs in carpet-forming moss species ( Hypnum cupressiforme ) collected from 44 sampling sites over the whole territory of the country were done by using epithermal neutron activation analysis (ENAA) at IBR-2 fast pulsed reactor in Dubna. This paper is focused on REEs (lanthanides) and Sc. Fe as typical consistent element and Th that appeared good correlations between the elements of lanthanides are included in this paper. Th, Sc, and REEs were never previously determined in the air deposition of Albania. Descriptive statistics were used for data treatment using MINITAB 17 software package. The median values of the elements under investigation were compared with those of the neighboring countries such as Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia, as well as Norway which is selected as a clean area. Geographical distribution maps of the elements over the sampled territory were constructed using geographic information system (GIS) technology. Geochemical behavior of REEs in moss samples has been studied by using the ternary diagram of Sc–La–Th, Spider diagrams and multivariate analysis. It was revealed that the accumulation of REEs in current mosses is associated with the wind-blowing metal-enriched soils that is pointed out as the main emitting factor of the elements under investigation.