USO DE LÍQUENES COMO BIOINDICADORES DE CONTAMINACIÓN ATMOSFÉRICA EN EL PASIVO AMBIENTAL MINERO SANTO TORIBIO, ÁNCASH, PERÚ

Abstract

The use of lichens as bioindicator are widely recognized, especially to know environment quality in a specific zone. This paper assess the lichens as bioindicators of air pollution in the mining environmental liability Santo Toribio, Áncash, Perú. Two zones were studied with similar habitats characteristic, but differentiated in the presence of environmental impact, one called Passive Zone and other Control zone; in the first 8 stations were stablished and in the second 1; 108 sampling points were evaluated. In order to know the levels of air pollution by lichens a study of species richness was carried out. Index of Atmospheric Purity (IAP) was calculated and heavy metals were analyzed. In the case of IAP, the protocol originally used in phorophytes (trees) was adapt to rocky substrates due to the limited timberline in the area; the species used for the analysis of heavy metals by means of environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) was Usnea durietzii (Motyka, 1937). The study found 42 lichen species distributed in 15 families and 27 genera being mostly crustose type. The lowest value of richness species and IAP and high concentration of heavy metals found in the Passive Zone , reflecting the high levels of air pollution and the efficacy of lichens as bioindicadores of air pollution.