Meteorological and pedological influence on the PCBs distribution in mountain soils |
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Authors: | Guazzoni Niccolò Comolli Roberto Mariani Luigi Cola Gabriele Parolini Marco Binelli Andrea Tremolada Paolo |
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Institution: | a Department of Biology, University of Milan, Via Celoria 26, 20133 Milan, Italy b Department of Environmental and Land Sciences (DISAT), University of Milan Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milan, Italy c Department of Crop Science, University of Milan, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milan, Italy |
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Abstract: | Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a threat to environmental and human health due to their persistence and toxicological effects. In this paper, we analyse some meteorological and organic-matter-related effects on their distribution in the soils of an Alpine environment that is not subject to direct contamination. We collected samples and measured the contamination of 12 selected congeners from three soil layers (O, A1 and A2) and from North-, plain- and South-facing slopes on six different dates spanning the entire snowless portion of the year. We recorded the hourly air and soil temperatures, humidity and rainfall in the study period. We found evidence that PCBs contamination in soils varies significantly, depending on sampling date, layer and aspect. The observed seasonal trend shows an early summer peak and a rapid decrease during June. The layer effect demonstrates higher dry-weight-based concentrations in the O layer, whereas the differences are much smaller for SOM-based concentrations. Different factors caused significantly higher concentrations in northern soils, with a N/S enrichment factor ranging from 1.8 to 1.5 during the season. The southern site has significantly more rapid early-summer re-volatilisation kinetics (half-time of 16 d for South, 25 d for North). |
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Keywords: | PCBs Alpine soils Seasonal variation Layer effect Aspect effect Summer volatilisation |
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