Particulate matter in the atmosphere can contain a wide range of pollutant chemicals that are hazardous to human and environmental health. In order to manage the impact of such materials in the environment it is necessary to be able to identify their source(s), and to measure the rate at which they deposit from the atmosphere onto soil, vegetation and into water catchments. Such measurements have tended to be complex and expensive to make, involving release of tracer aerosols or chemical analysis of ambient aerosol deposits. A new technique, magnetic biomonitoring, has recently been developed. This enables deposition measurements to be made more quickly and cheaply. The scope of this technique for taking measurements at significantly enhanced spatial resolution will enable a much better understanding of particle deposition in topographically complex environments.