Biomonitoring Air Pollution With The Lichen Xanthoria Parietina

Our work focused on biodetection of air pollution by hydrocarbons in three stations of the Wilaya of Ouargla in Algerian Sahara namely, Hassi Messaoud (HMD), Haoud Berkaoui (HBK) and the center of Ouargla (OGX). We used lichens from the north of Algeria as biological model after transplantation in order to evaluate the effects of this pollution. The levels of hexane soluble compounds (CSH) exhibit variation (broadly increasing then decreasing) over time for all three stations taking into account that the station HMD presents the highest values compared to other stations. The ratio MF/MS reveals fluctuating but more or less declining values especially for HMD. Generally a decrease in this ratio at the end of the experiment is observed. With regard to chlorophyll content, we record the decrease of chlorophyll for the three stations. The variations in the different contents are probably due to two factors, pollution on the one hand notably for CSH, and dehydration of thalli under the effect of heat on the other hand for MF/MS notably.