scope:

The European Union's clean air policy and the Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG) demand the protection of "humans, animals and plants [...] from harmful environmental impacts [...]". Whether these aims are reached, can only be verified by assessments of effects on organisms.

The effect data determined by biological measuring techniques differ on principle from physicalchemical measurement data of air pollutant concentrations or deposition rates and from values estimated by models. Effect assessments cannot be replaced by technical measurements or model-like derivations. Only assessments of organisms in time and space (biomonitoring) can represent the calledfor verification because biological systems also indicate feedbacks, i.e., possible synergistic and antagonistic effects of co-occurring pollutant components.

Biomonitoring allows the reaction of organisms to substances and their accumulation to be analysed and their spatial distribution and temporal change to be monitored. Furthermore, biomonitoring can resolve whether effects have been caused by immissions; in addition, the region of impact of immissions can be delineated and assessed according to whether protected goods are at risk [6].

Biological measuring techniques can be used preventively, e.g. in aid of decisions for precautionary immission protection, supportively in relation to immission measurements, for preserving evidence, control and for long-term monitoring of pollutants in the environment [7 to 17].

Areas of application are

• long-term monitoring of immissions for ecology/ ecological monitoring of the environment
• determination and assessment of local, regional, and countrywide immission impacts
• permit procedures related to the immission control act
• preservation of evidence related to the immission control act
• surveying strategy for health protection after damage incidents
• evidence of causation, e.g. related to environmental liability
• strategies for air quality maintenance plans
• environmental impact assessment
• monitoring of emission sources
• control of performance of implementations for immission reductions
• exploratory pre-examinations for locating hotspots of impacts/screenings
• obtaining counter samples for long-term monitoring

The deployment of biological techniques for determination and assessment of the effect of air pollutants supports the objectives of several laws and regulations. European Directive 2008/50/EC on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe demands a suitable control of air quality. The Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) 2010/75/EU on effects of industrial activities on the environment regulates the permits for environmentally significant industrial plants based on a cross-media concept. From the aforementioned one can derive the demand for identification of significant effects of immissions on the environment. In the German legal code the corresponding demand can be found in the BImSchG and its by-laws.

Both in the Guidance Notes on Best-Available Techniques for Waste Incineration BREF 08.2006 and in the Reference Document on the General Principles of Monitoring, being reference documents of the IED Directive, mention biomonitoring explicitly as a technique. European Directive 2004/107/EC relating to arsenic, cadmium, mercury, nickel and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air also mentions bioindicators in relation with the assessment of regional patterns of effects on ecosystems.

According to the habitats directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora, authorities must restrict or deny permits for plans and projects if the integrity of protected Natura-2000 areas may be adversely affected. The Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG) of 29 July 2009 calls for "the monitoring [for] targeted and continuous determination, description, and assessment of the condition of nature and landscape and their changes including the causes and consequences of these changes" (Section 6, paragraph 2).