Preliminary results of biomonitoring survey at Virunga Volcanic Province (D.R. Congo), Eastern Africa.

Biomonitoring techniques have been widely used in environmental studies to monitor anthropogenic pollutants. Recently such techniques have been also applied to ascertain the impact of contaminants naturally released by volcanic activity (Calabrese et al., 2015; Arndt et al., 2017). In the present study a biomonitoring survey has been performed in different sites around Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira (D.R. Congo), active volcanoes in the western branch of the East African Rift. We applied both active and passive biomonitoring techniques in order to investigate the release of some harmful chemical elements by Nyiragongo and Nyamulagira: the former was performed by exposing moss-bags (Sphagnum sp.…