title: Can pine needles indicate trends in the air pollution levels at remote sites?
abstract: Data from ten years of integrated monitoring were used here to evaluate whether pine needles are a feasible tool for an assessment of long-term trends of the atmospheric contamination. Pine needles collected once a year were compared to high volume air samples collected for 24 h, every 7 days, and passive air samples integrated over 28-day periods. Results showed the same concentration patterns of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) captured in needles and high volume samples. Passive air samplers were less efficient in sampling the particle-bound compounds. Theoretical air volume equivalent to each needle sample (V(EQ)) was calculated as a ratio of the needle concentration over the mean air concentration. Results indicated different equivalent volumes for PAHs and organochlorines, possibly due to the faster degradation rates of PAHs in needles. The most important finding is that in the long term a needle monitoring gives very similar information on temporal trends of the atmospheric pollution as does a high volume air monitoring.
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology RECETOX, Masaryk University, Kamenice 126/3, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic. klanova@recetox.muni.cz
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Klánová
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cupr
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Baráková
authors.forename: Zdenek
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Seda
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Andel
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Holoubek
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000032:analysis*; D000531:Altitude; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D028223:Pinus / Q000737:chemistry*; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000737:chemistry*; D012424:Rural Population / Q000639:trends
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants