Response to the comments on 'A critical review of protocols for moss biomonitoring of atmospheric deposition: Sampling and sample preparation'

摘要

The ICP Vegetation is an international research programme that investigates the impacts of air pollutants on crops and (semi-)natural vegetation. Within this programme, the European moss monitoring survey aims, amongst other objectives, to characterize the spatial and temporal trends in concentrations of heavy metals in mosses in Europe (Frontasyeva et al., 2014). In order to fulfil this objective, the European moss monitoring survey applies the "moss biomonitoring technique". This environmental tool, which is based on the determination of the concentrations of pollutants in tissues of terrestrial mosses, is used to study air quality and more specifically, the atmospheric deposition of heavy metals (Fernandez et al., 2015). Clearly, the European moss monitoring survey is not equivalent to the moss biomonitoring technique. The former is a research programme that uses the latter (a tool available to the whole scientific community) for a specific purpose.