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Deployments of ARGOS satellite transmitters on 19 post-breeding adult southern elephant seal males at King George Island / Isla 25 de Mayo in November 2013 represent a follow-up study of earlier projects on post-moulting adult males satellite tagged in 2000 and 2010. These previous deployments were constrained by the fact that only a small fraction of the satellite tagged seals could be unequivocally attributed to the local breeding population of the Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) 132 on King George Island / Isla 25 de Mayo due to earlier permanent marking procedures. As a result, a number of the previous tracks ended at South Georgia towards the breeding season, implying that the tagged seals originated from that breeding colony. The recent tracks represent the first deployments on post-breeding males at the ASPA 132 and they include about 50% of the population of adult males that were present during the breeding period either as harem bulls (n = 3), challengers (n = 7), or isolated males (n = 9) between October and December 2013. Of the 19 transmitters, two failed within the first two weeks after deployment and were disregarded for further analyses. The post-breeding long-distance foraging tracks of the remaining 17 males were primarily oriented along the continental shelf margin towards the Bellingshausen and even Amundsen Seas (n = 12), and shorter tracks along the Bransfield Strait / Mar de la Flota to the North (n = 4) and around the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula (n = 1). This suggests far more south-westerly oriented foraging movements of mature males of the ASPA 132 elephant seal colony than previously assumed. All seals showed extended residence times at specific circumscribed at-sea locations, considered as foraging hot spots. These spots were widely distributed within the aforementioned marine areas and coincide with bathymetric features, such as slopes, bays and troughs.

An HPLC method with diode array detection for the determination of acide aromatic nitro compounds (in particular nitrophenols and nitrobenzoic acids) in ground water around former ammunition plants is presented. The use of an isocratic mobile phase, buffered to a pH of 2.30 on a reversed phase column, allows the seperation of several nitrophenols and nitrobenzoic acids, some of which are known as phototransformation products of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT). In ground water sample from the former ammunition site at Elsnig (Saxony, Germany) 2,4- and 3,5-dinitrophenol, picric acid and 2,4-dinitro- benzoic acid were identified in addition to a variety of explosives determined previously. [...] The results demonstrate that the application of DAD match and purity testing is an important tool for confirming the presence of compounds in environmental samples.

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) is evaluated with respect to its suitability to GC analysis of a large spectrum of pesticides having a wide range of structures and polarities. Organophosphorus and triazine pesticides are extracted from aqueous samples using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) with a 85 (micro)m polyacrylate phase. The fiber is directly introduced into a heated split/splitless injector of the gas chromatograph. The analytes are thermally desorbed and determined using a nitrogen-phosphorus selective detector (NPE). The method was validated with respect to the limit of detection, linearity and precision.

Methods for the determination of three compound classes, i.e. diaminotoluenes, nitrophenols, and chloroaromatics in groundwater of a former ammunition plant are reported. Diaminotoluenes were extracted by discontinuous liquid/liquid-, nitrophenols by continuous liquid/liquid-extraction using dichloromethane, and chloroaromatics by solid-phase extraction. These compound classes may be analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) or gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/MS) without derivatization or after derivatization with N-methyl-bis(trifluoroacetamide) (MBTFA) or heptafluorobutyric anhydride (HFBA) in the case of diaminotoluenes and HFBA or acetic anhydride in the case of nitrophenols. An atomic emission detector (AED) coupled to a gas chromatograph may be employed for the analysis of chloroaromatics. (abstract truncated)

The analysis of samples contaminated by organic compounds, especially pesticides, is an important tool of environmental monitoring. A new isolation method has been developed for the determination of pesticides in environmental water samples using solid-phase microextraction (SPME). Thus, the extraction and preconcentration steps of sample preparation are focused in a single process step. For the determiantion of organophosphorus pesticides using SPME extraction and preconcentration steps a GC-atomic emission detection coupling system was used. This coupling technique is a very selective analytical tool. Element-characteristic chromatograms acquired by using different element emission lines can be obtained, enhancing the selectivity of the method in environmental monitoring, and they can be used to identify even unknown compounds in environmental samples. (abstract truncated)