Pine needles as monitors of atmospheric organic pollutants

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:49605

Strachan, W M.J. ^[1]; Kylin, H; Jensen, S ^[2]

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1. National Water Research Inst., Burlington, Ontario (Canada)
2. Stockholm Univ. (Sweden)

The wax covering of pine needles was examined for selected persistent organic pollutants known to be transported globally via the atmosphere. Several years of needles from the Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris) from southern through northern Europe were differentiated and used to determine the time trends of DDT, HCB, HCH, PCP and PCB residues. Methods of collecting, processing and analyzing were investigated and the possibility of using area as a means of expressing results explored. Patterns of accumulation observed were those expected of globally distributed chemicals and local pollutants with an underlying global contribution; PCP was an ambiguous case. PCBs could not be clearly determined due to analytical problems with this matrix. Sampling factors such as facing direction of sample trees and number of sampled trees did not affect the results; there was some indication that height-above-ground was a factor. Levels of analytes observed in the needle wax of the samples were: a-HCH, 0.06--8.2; lindane, 0.07--17.8; HCB, 0.05--2.4; p,p{prime}-DDT, 0.14--1.9; p,p{prime}-DDE, 0.03--0.8; PCP, 0.6--7.3. PCB values were ambiguous largely due to a high number of negative peaks found in the g.c. chromatograms; a possible solution to this difficulty will be discussed.

• OSTI ID: 49605
• Report Number(s): CONF-9410273--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
AIR POLLUTION
BIOLOGICAL ACCUMULATION
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS
CHLORINATED AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
PINES
POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS
SENSITIVITY