A bag of moss lying in an irrigation ditch in North East Italy does not conjure up a picturesque image nor the cutting edge of analytical science but nevertheless the special characteristics of the moss Rhynchostegium riparioides make it the ideal environmental monitor according to researchers at the University of Trieste and their colleagues at ARPAV.
Waterways are often intermittently polluted by metals from industrial outflows and other sources. Such waterways are often used in rural parts for agricultural irrigation. The phenomenon is frequent in the Veneto Region of Northeast Italy, according to biologists M. Cesa, F. Fumagalli, and Pier Nimis at Trieste and Alessandro Bizzotto and C. Ferraro of the Vicenza ARPAV Italy.
You can read the complete story in my SpectroscopyNOW news round-up this week.