Scientists hung clean moss beside Russian highways to catch traffic pollution

Researchers in Russia hung bags of moss beside three busy highways to see how much traffic pollution the plants would soak up. Published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, the study exposed moss collected from a clean background site to roadside air along the Leningradskoye, Yaroslavskoye, and Dmitrovkoye highways in central Russia. After analysing the moss for sixteen elements, the researchers found that traffic-related metals had built up in the plants, with pollution levels varying sharply between the three roads.Why scientists hung moss bags beside three Russian highwaysThe study, titled ‘Impact of traffic-related emissions on air quality assessed via moss bags technique,’ used Sphagnum girgensohnii moss, a species widely recommended for air pollution biomonitoring. Researchers collected clean moss from a background site in Russia's Tver region in May 2023, cleaned it, dried it, and packed it into bags before hanging the bags beside stretches of highway not exposed to any other major pollution sources. The approach let the team isolate the effect of traffic alone on air quality, rather than the mix of industrial and vehicle sources found in most previous moss-bag studies co...