TA7 Alkylphenols and Alkylphenol Ethoxylates
Room 18C/D, Level 4
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Tuesday, 11 November 2003
Chair: Loyo-Rosales, Jorge ,
(227) Occurrence and Fate of Alkylphenols in the Western Mediterranean Atmosphere and Seawater.
Dachs, J.1, Guitart, C.1, Del Vento, S.1, Garcia, N.1, Bayona, J.M.1, Albaigés, J., 1 Dept. Environmental Chemistry, IIQAB-CSIC, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
ABSTRACT- The understanding of the environmental fate of alkylphenols is important in order to assess the impact of these estrogenic compounds. In the present work an assessment of the occurrence and fate of alkylphenols in the western Mediterranean is presented. More than fifty seawater and surface microlayer samples were analysed for nonylphenols (NPs) and other persistent pollutants from three sites; an impacted site off-shore Barcelona (Spain), an oligotrophic site off-shore Banyuls (France) and in the SW Mediterranean open sea. Seawater dissolved phase concentrations ranged from 15 to 68 ng L-1 in the impacted coastal sites and concentrations were below detection limit at the open Mediterranean sea. An enrichment of NPs by a factor of 2-4 was found in the surface microlayer samples showing that the SML is an environmental compartment where accumulation of these pollutants occur. Furthermore, gas and aerosol phase samples were also collected in the coastal and open Mediterranean sea atmosphere. Gas phase concentrations of nonylphenols in the open sea marine boundary layer ranged from 0.9 to 6.6 ng m-3 while aerosol phase concentrations ranged from 1.4 to 7.8 ng m-3. The occurrence of NPs in the open sea atmosphere suggests that NPs may be subject to long range atmospheric transport and thus impact pristine areas after NPs are atmospherically deposited to the marine environment. Due to the gas-particle partitioning of NPs to aerosols, both dry deposition and diffusive air-water exchange are important atmosphere-ocean transfer processes of NPs.
Key words: air-water exchange, alkylphenols, Mediterranean Sea, dry depositiojn