PARENT SESSION
4I Pollution control and management in the Mediterranean Sea
9:00 AM to 7:00 PM, Wednesday, 09 May 2001

(W/EH100) Atmospheric gas/particle distribution and deposition flux of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Tsapakis, M.¹, Hatzara, E.¹, Stephanou, E.¹, ¹

ABSTRACT- Gas/Particle distribution and wet and dry deposition flux of 50 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were measured from 1997 to 2000 in an urban site (Heraclion) and a background marine station (Finokalia) in the Island of Crete in Greece. The partitioning of PAHs between gas and particulate phase correlated with the compound subcooled liquid vapor pressure (p⁰_L) especially for the background marine samples. Correlation coefficients (R²) varied from 0,80 to 0,95 while the slopes of the logKp vs log p⁰_L varied from -0,90 to -1,40. Wet deposition concentration for total PAHs ( PAHs) varied from 24 up to 244 ng/L at the urban site and from 20 up to 163 ng/L for the background marine site. PAH concentration in the dissolved phase was higher than in the particulate phase for all urban wet deposition samples. On the contrary in wet deposition samples collected at the background marine site PAHs were rather associated with the particulate phase. Dry deposition rate was higher at the urban (111,57 g m^-2y^-1) than at the background marine site (31,95 g m^-2y^-1).

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