Dynamics of sulfate and nitrate dry deposition associated with pollen

Miscellaneous · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:7153962

Khalili, E K

A field study of pollen dispersion and deposition from a remote forested area in Northern Wisconsin has been undertaken. Although the experiments constitute a case study in Wisconsin, the experimental site was chosen, which represents much of the Eastern US and Europe where acid rain is considered an important environmental problem. Measurements of dry deposition of pollen were made during the pollination season (May and June, 1987). Deposited particles were weighted to determine mass fluxes, then washed and subjected to ion chromatographic analysis for sulfate and nitrate. Ambient concentration of pollen were measured by a coarse particle sampler (Noll Inertial Rotary Impact) during the same time period. The chemical analysis of pollen species collected around the sampling site as well as commercially available pollen demonstrated that sulfate and nitrate were present on all pollen samples. Many trace metals such as Fe, Al, Zn, Cu, Mn, Cd, Pb, Ca, and Si and organic acids were quantified. It was hypothesized that pollen accumulate extraneous amounts of non-essential, as well as essential elements from the soil supplying nutrient. Therefore, pollen can be used as a fingerprint for the availability and the level of contamination of a particular element in the forest soil environment. A model developed for measurement of coarse particle dry deposition was utilized to measure the pollen dry deposition velocity. It was shown that depositional velocity of pollen exceeds the settling velocity by a factor of 3 to 4, and both V{sub d} and fluxes of pollen grains increase with wind speed. Finally, the role of pollen dispersion and deposition has been discussed and emphasized for modeling of lake acidification in forested region.

• Research Organization: Illinois Inst. of Tech., Chicago, IL (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7153962
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACID RAIN
NITRATES
DEPOSITION
POLLEN
SULFATES
ALUMINIUM
CADMIUM
CALCIUM
COPPER
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
IRON
LEAD
MANGANESE
ORGANIC ACIDS
SILICON
TRACE AMOUNTS
ZINC
ALKALINE EARTH METALS
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
DATA
ELEMENTS
GAMETES
GERM CELLS
INFORMATION
MASS TRANSFER
METALS
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RAIN
SEMIMETALS
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
540120* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)