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Pivotal Role of Snow Deposition and Melting Driving Fluxes of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons at Coastal Livingston Island (Antarctica)
- Source :
- Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC, instname
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- American Chemical Society (ACS), 2018.
-
Abstract
- The atmosphere-land-ocean dynamics of semivolatile organic compounds in polar regions is poorly understood, also for the abundant and ubiquitous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We report the concentrations and fluxes of PAHs in a polar coastal ecosystem (Livingston Island, Antarctica). From late spring (December 2014) to late summer (February 2015), we sampled air, snow, coastal seawater, plankton, and the fugacity in soils and snow. The concentrations of PAHs in seawater were low but increased during the austral summer. The PAH concentrations in snow were significantly higher than in coastal seawater. Soil-air fugacity ratios showed a net volatilization of PAH when soils were covered with lichens, and close to air-soil equilibrium for bare soils. Concentrations in surface snow were also close to equilibrium with atmospheric PAHs. Conversely, there was a net diffusive deposition of PAHs to coastal seawater during late spring, but a net volatilization from seawater during late summer. Volatilization fluxes were correlated with seawater temperature and salinity, consistent with a key role of snowmelt to the fluxes and dissolved phase concentrations during the austral summer. The comprehensive assessment provided here shows that the fugacity amplification in snow is transferred to soils and coastal seawater supporting PAH concentrations and fluxes.<br />Inorganic nutrient analyses were performed by Mrs. M. I. Abad in coordination with Dr. E. Berdalet (Head of the Service) at the “Nutrient Analysis Service” of the ICM (CSIC). We thank F. Cerqueria and A. Martinez for support with DNA analysis. This work was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science to P.C. through a predoctoral fellowhip, by Fundación BBVA award to M.V.C., European Commission to A.C. through a Marie Curie international outgoing fellowship, and by the Spanish MINECO through projects REMARCA (CTM2012- 34673) and ISOMICS (CTM2015-65691-R). The research group of Global Change and Genomic Biogeochemistry is supported by the Catalan Government (2017SGR800).
- Subjects :
- Islands
0301 basic medicine
Air Pollutants
Volatilisation
Antarctic Regions
General Chemistry
010501 environmental sciences
Plankton
Snow
01 natural sciences
03 medical and health sciences
030104 developmental biology
Deposition (aerosol physics)
Environmental chemistry
Soil water
Environmental Chemistry
Environmental science
Seawater
Ecosystem
Fugacity
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
Environmental Monitoring
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15205851 and 0013936X
- Volume :
- 52
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Environmental Science & Technology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....c7d7725911a4d5b5f6d19b4f8a57489d