Biomonitor

A biological monitor, or biomonitor, is defined as an organism that provides quantitative information on the quality of the environment around it. Therefore, a good biomonitor will indicate the presence of the pollutant and also attempt to provide additional information about the amount and intensity of the exposure.
A bioindicator is an organism or biological response that reveals the presence of the pollutants by the accurance of typical symptoms or measurable responses, and is therefore more qualitative.

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These organisms (or communities of organisms) deliver information on alterations in the environment or the quantity of environmental pollutants by changing in one of the following ways: physiologically, chemically or behaviourally.

The information can be deduced through the study of:

1. their content of certain elements or compounds
2. their morphological or cellular structure
3. metabolic-biochemical processes
4. behaviour, or
5. population structure(s)

The importance and relevance of biomonitors, rather than man-made equipment, is justified by the statement:

"There is no better indicator of the status of a species or a system than a species or system itself" - Tingey (1989)

The use of a biomonitor is described as biological monitoring (abbr. biomonitoring) and is the use of the properties of an organism to obtain information on certain aspects of the biosphere.

Biomonitoring of air pollutants can be passive or active. Passive methods observe plants growing naturally within the area of interest. Active methods detect the presence of air pollutants by placing test plants of known response and genotype into the study area. Bioaccumulative indicators are frequently regarded as biomonitors.

There are several types of natural biomonitors, including mosses, lichens, tree bark, bark pockets, tree rings, leaves, and fungi.

References

• Bohm (1998)
• Gorecki (2002)
• Madejon et al (2004)
• Mulgrew and Williams (2000)
• Tingey (1989)
• Wolterbeek et al (2001)