Scientists from the Laboratory of Neutron Physics at JINR in collaboration with their colleagues from scientific and educational centres of Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Romania determined the level of air pollution in the Burabay National Park located in the north of Republic of Kazakhstan with the use of moss as biomonitors. According to contamination factor and pollution load indices the investigated area belongs to three classes of pollution: unpolluted, suspected and moderate. Potential ecological risk index calculated for selected elements revealed harmless risk to human health.

The Burabay State National Natural Park is a national park of the great natural and historical values, which has been exposed in recent years to significant anthropogenic impact. The moss biomonitoring was performed in the Borovoye resort community, an important tourist destination in the national park, to identify the level of air pollution.

The spatial distribution maps build for ecological risk index in moss samples collected in the Burabay State National Natural Park

Mosses collected at 29 locations were subjected to neutron activation analysis to determine 36 elements and additionally to ICP-OES to detect the level of Cu and Pb. Factor analysis was applied to check if there are any associations between identified elements and to link them with possible emission sources. The level of element obtained in Burabay State National Natural Park was compared with the data available for other national parks.

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment published an article on this research. The team of the authors: Makhabbat Nurkassimova, Nuriya Omarova, Inga Zinicovscaia, Nikita Yushin, and Omari Chaligava.