Lead adsorption capacity of some moss species used for heavy metal analysis

• This research investigates the lead absorption capacities of six different moss species.
• The absorption capacities of the studied six mosses are found in descending order.
• The moss species having the highest and lowest adsorption capacities are determined as Eurhynchium striatum and Thuidium tamariscinum, respectively.
• One of the important factors for the variation of concentrations with respect to the moss species is the size of the leaf surfaces.

Mosses, covering about 23,000 species of all land plants in the world, have been widely used as an indicator of heavy metal pollution in many studies. A crucial part in these researches is to regularize the adsorption capacities of different moss species obtained from different regions to objectively compare the pollution levels. In this study, we have first analyzed the lead adsorption capacities of six different moss species by means of using column filled with Amberlite XAD-2000 resin method. The adsorption capacities of the studied six mosses are found in descending order as Eurhynchium striatum, Hypnum cupressiforme, Pleurozium schreberi, Eurhynchium striatulum, Homalothecium sericeum and Thuidium tamariscinum. Then, we have regularized the Pb adsorption levels for the moss species obtained from different regions along one of the important coast highway in Turkey, namely Sarp-Samsun highway, with respect to the determined adsorption capacities.