MOSS BIOMONITORING OF AIR POLLUTION AND ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS ON ARCHEOLOGICAL OBJECTS IN STOBI, NORTH MACEDONIA

Abstract

The contents of 33 elements (Ag, Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ga, Ge, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Pd, S, Sb, Se, Sn, Sr, Ti, V, and Zn) were determined in moss samples collected from 20 different locations in the ancient town of Stobi, North Macedonia. Determination was performed by the application of inductively coupled plasma with mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) after microwave digestion. It was found that the median values for the content of macroelements (Al, Ca, Fe, K, Mg) and for some specific trace elements (Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in moss samples from the Stobi site are higher to those obtained for the moss samples collected from the whole territory of North Macedonia. This significant increase in the contents of these elements is especially noticeable in the samples of moss taken from the monuments in Stobi, whose substrate is the mortar between lime and sandstones or sandstone, and in some cases when the substrate is a marble. Similar behavior has been observed also from the data for the median and the range of the content of these elements in the six moss samples collected from the wider vicinity of Stobi which have a noticeable increase in the median values of Ca, Co, Cr, Fe, Ni, Sr, and Zn compared to the median for the samples taken from the entire territory of North Macedonia. It was concluded that the contamination of the moss samples from Stobi, apart from the substrate from which they were taken, is also affected by the distribution of dust from the surrounding soils, in which the content of elements with increased contents is significantly higher than the average for soils from the entire territory of North Macedonia.