Lichens as the Main Indicator in Biological Monitoring of Air Quality

Based on the available knowledge on air quality impairment, there is now a need to know the type and degree of pollution. One of the basic prerequisites for improving air quality is the timely detection of pollution. The bioindication method is widely used as a significant tool for air quality assessment by taking into account the temporal dimension of the negative impact of pollutants in the ecosystem based on the reaction of living organisms to the total sum of all the effects of different environmental factors. This is the only method that assesses the impact of air quality on living beings directly. The best bioindicators are lichens due to their pronounced sensitivity to air quality changes. Over time, lichens accumulate a variety of different pollutants which may pose potential risks to ecosystems and human health. Taking into account the time dimension, it is especially useful to monitor the state of air quality in anthropogenically modified ecosystems. Therefore, the focus of this chapter is the indication and zoning of different degrees of air quality in selected seminatural and anthropogenically modified ecosystems of Serbia over a longer period of time, based on the contemporary methods of using lichens as bioindicators.