Jovan has no illusions that moss will offer the same precision as a standard air monitor. But if the Forest Service were to install more sophisticated instruments at about 350 sites in Portland, the costs would total closer to $17 million, she said. For Jovan and her team, the entire study cost less than $100,000. The Forest Service deemed that frugality enough to make it worthwhile for years of research.
Even before applying this research
The agency had been studying mosses as pollutant monitors in less developed forested areas. However, there are limitations. Moss and lichen testing could run into some issues, depending on where future research is conducted. Desert-climate cities like Los Angeles might not be an option, Jovan said.
Portland and the surrounding area
This particular moss grows so well on most of the street trees in the city,” she said. “But there are a lot of other places we could do this. For example, we amazon database looked at Cincinnati and are considering doing some work in Philadelphia. Of course, there’s a lot less material available there, but we don’t really need that much material to get the data.” Dorobek then asked Jovan how she landed on this position and discovered the new power of tree mosses.
I’ve always been a nature enthusiast
spend all my time outdoors,” she said. “I think at first I really liked the weirdest things I could get my hands on, like bugs and frogs, and then I moved on complete guide to using google’s local guide feature for your business to mushrooms—I’m actually technically a lichenologist. But Portland is so rich in mosses, and if you like mosses and lichens, there’s a lot you can do. For me, part of it was, how do I combine this fascination of mine with some kind of valuable service?” Eventually, the Forest Service hired Jovan to go into the forest and collect lichens. The Urban Experiment was a spinoff project.
She explains that they initially sampled mosses
in the city to see if denser vegetation cover was associated tg data with lower pollution. But mapping high-resolution pollutants became the focus of the research. They haven’t fully answered how much and which pollutants plants can remove, but the hotspots they found have more far-reaching implications for immediate action. Like the stories of these federal government undercover heroes? Check out the other SAMMIE finalists and follow their successes.