PARENT SESSION
TP9 - POPS: Organisms & Atmospheric Transport
Chair: Muir, Derek1, 1 Environment Canada, Burlington, ON
Co-chair: Hites, Ron2, 2 Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
2:10 PM to 5:30 PM - Tuesday, 19 November 2002
Room Ballroom E
(481) Atmospheric deposition of POPs to vegetation and soils of arctic Alaska, European Russia, and Siberia.
Ford, Jesse*,1, Muir, Derek2, Sericano, Jose3, 1 Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA2 National Water Research Institute, Burlington, ONT, Canada3 Texas A&M Research Foundation, College Station, TX, USA
ABSTRACT- Transfer processes of persistent organic pollutants from atmospheric compartments to inland arctic environments, where cold condensation processes are expected to dominate, has not been well characterized. Analysis of organochlorine signatures from mosses, lichens, and soils of arctic Alaska, European Russia, and the Taymir Peninsula has now demonstrated distinct geographic patterns that can be presumptively related to atmospheric deposition at a variety of scales. As predicted by the cold condensation hypothesis, four high volatility, low molecular weight compounds are well represented in the northernmost, Taymir, samples. By contrast, many pesticides and most of the heavier PCBs are present at higher concentrations in samples from the Kola Peninsula and the northern Urals than in those from either the Taymir or from arctic Alaska, suggesting inputs from more local anthropogenic activities. Generally lower concentrations of target analytes are found in arctic Alaska, although some analytes are specific to samples from this region. Concentrations in soils rarely exceeded 1 ng/g dw except for HCBs, HCHs, and DDTs in A horizon soils from three sites on the Kola Peninsula. Concentrations in vegetation exceeded 1 ng/g dw for only a few highly volatile analytes. Clear differences in POPs fingerprints were found among target moss and lichen taxa, with concentrations in the lichen Cetraria cucullata generally at least 2-3x higher than those in the monitoring moss Hylocomium splendens, the moss Racomitrium lanuginosum, and the tumbleweed lichen Masonhalea richardsonii. Complementary studies are now in progress at several subsistence fish camps in western arctic Alaska to partition freshwater inputs of POPs and Hg between atmospheric sources and biotransport from the marine by amphidromous whitefish.
Key words: POPs, vegetation, Russia, Alaska