Utilization of plant bioindicators in monitoring of environmental contamination

Environmental contamination may be observed by different analytical tools as well as by various types of bioindicators providing relevant information about the effects of toxic substances and their mixtures towards organisms in situ. The aim of this work is to provide a comprehensive overview of plant bioindicators and biomonitors suitable for biomonitoring of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in natural ecosystems. For groups of organic pollutants such as PCBs, PCDDs / Fs, PBDEs, PAHs, PFCs, and OCPs, review of literature is provided including knowledge about different species of coniferous trees, angiospermous plants (including crops), mosses and lichens that can be used for monitoring. In this work, analysis examples of samples of pine needles, bark, moss and lichen tissue are quoted as biomonitor tools. An overview of plants for phytotoxicity and genotoxicity observation using pollen grains abortivity and online bioindication as an example on non-specific biomonitoring is also provided