title: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon composition in soils and sediments of high altitude lakes.
abstract: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in lake sediments and nearby soils of two European high mountain regions, Pyrenees and Tatra, have been studied. Similar mixtures of parent PAH were observed in all cases, indicating predominance of airborne transported combustion products. Nevertheless, the composition of these atmospherically long-range transported PAH was better preserved in the superficial layers of soils than sediments. This difference points to significant PAH degradation process, e.g. during lake water column transport, before accumulation in the latter. Post-depositional transformation was also different in both types of environmental compartments. Thus, lake sediments exhibit higher preservation of the more labile PAH involving lower degree of post-depositional oxidation. However, they also show the formation of major amounts of perylene by diagenetic transformation in the deep sections. This compound is not formed in soils where downcore enrichments of phenanthrene are observed, probably as a consequence of diagenetic aromatization of diterpenoids.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Chemistry, Institute of Chemical and Environmental Research (ICER-CSIC), Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. jgoqam@cid.csic.es
authors.forename: Joan O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Grimalt
authors.forename: Barend L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: van Drooge
authors.forename: Alejandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ribes
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Appleby
mesh_terms: D000531:Altitude; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D005618:Fresh Water; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry*; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis*; D012987:Soil / Q000032:analysis*; D013030:Spain
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons; D012987:Soil