Thomas Campbell‡, Gilbert Gwilliam III§, Nkosi Evans‡|, Kate Peltz‡, Glenn Simpson‡, Laure Dussubieux§, Emily Erazo‡, Kage Guare‡, Agnetta Krechner‡, Estefania Long‡, Stephanie Maari§, Isaac Oguike‡, Kimberly Rice‡, Amanda Zinke‡, Chrissy Christian§, Ayesha Qazi-Lampert§, Joshua Henkin¶#, Danny Kreider§¤, Christopher Maves§, Gary Merrill§, Phoebe Moy§, Yarency Rodriguez«, Zoe Ryan|», Matt von Konrat§˄˅Corresponding author: Emily Erazo ( eerazo@fieldmuseum.org ) Corresponding author: Matt von Konrat ( mkonrat@fieldmuseum.org ) © Thomas Campbell, Gilbert Gwilliam III, Nkosi Evans, Kate Peltz, Glenn Simpson, Laure Dussubieux, Emily Erazo, Kage Guare, Agnetta Krechner, Estefania Long, Stephanie Maari, Isaac Oguike, Kimberly Rice, Amanda Zinke, Chrissy Christian, Ayesha Qazi-Lampert, Joshua Henkin, Danny Kreider, Christopher Maves, Gary Merrill, Phoebe Moy, Yarency Rodriguez, Zoe Ryan, Matt von Konrat. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Campbell T, Gwilliam III G, Evans N, Peltz K, Simpson G, Dussubieux L, Erazo E, Guare K, Krechner A, Long E, Maari S, Oguike I, Rice K, Zinke A, Christian C, Qazi-Lampert A, Henkin J, Kreider D, Maves C, Merrill G, Moy P, Rodriguez Y, Ryan Z, von Konrat M (2025) Green Guardians: Mosses as Potential Low-Cost Biomonitors of Air Pollution in Urban Chicago. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e183728 |  |
According to the Lancet Commission, air pollution is one of the single largest environmental causes of premature death in the world. Particulate matter (PM), including metals, are pollutants of concern. Bryophytes, especially mosses, have been used for many decades as low-cost biomonitors of environmental deposition of heavy metals. In this exploratory investigation, we use strategically placed Sphagnum moss paired with portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis as a living biomonitor for air / particulate metal pollution in and around the city of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. Preliminary results reveal a correlation between urbanization and some metal particulate matter, especially iron. The study warrants further investigation and supports the use of mosses and pXRF spectrometry as a rapid, low per-sample cost, and potentially accurate alternative to conventional metal pollution monitoring.