Question

The absence of certain lichens is used as an indicator of air pollution in remote areas such as national parks. How can we be sure that air pollution is really responsible? What evi dence would be convincing?

Answer 1

Basically after many decades of unsustainable utilisation of resources we have released a hefty amount of pollutants in air which travel a long way crossing the barriers of continents and seas so there are reports of lead, mercury and many other pollutants accumulated in polar regions....there no such place in the planet like "unpolluted" .........we don't have biomes now we have "anthromes"........by analysing certain pollutants such as metals and PAH and correlating them with certain lichen presence/ absence we can have clear picture of gravity of the ambient air pollution in otherwise pristine environs..