Within a European biomonitoring programme, Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) was employed as accumulative bioindicator of airbornetraceelements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Sb, V, Zn) in urban agglomerations. Applying a highly standardised method, grass cultures were exposed for consecutive periods of four weeks each to ambient air at up to 100 sites in 11cities during 2000–2002. Results of the 2001 exposure experiments revealed a clear differentiation of traceelementpollution within and among local monitoring networks. Pollution was influenced particularly by traffic emissions. Especially Sb, Pb, Cr, Fe, and Cu exhibited a very uneven distribution within the municipal areas with strong accumulation in plants from traffic-exposed sites in the city centres and close to major roads, and moderate to low levels in plants exposed at suburban or rural sites. Accumulation of Ni and V was influenced by other emission sources. The biomonitoring sites located in Spanish city centres featured a much higher pollution load by traceelements than those in other cities of the network, confirming previously reported findings obtained by chemical analyses of dust deposition and aerosols. At some heavily-trafficked sites, legal thresholds for Cu, Pb, and V contents in foodstuff and animal feed were reached or even surpassed. The study confirmed that the standardised grass exposure is a useful and reliable tool to monitor and to assess environmental levels of potentially toxic compounds of particulate matter.

This study was supported by the LIFE Environment Programme of the European Commission under the grant LIFE/99/ENV/D/000453.CEAM is partly supported by Generalitat Valenciana, Bancaja, and CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 (GRACCIE).

11 páginas, 2 tablas, 3 figuras.

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