title: Preferential retention of POPs on the northern aspect of mountains.
abstract: Soils are the main reservoirs of POPs in mountain ecosystems, but the great variability of the concentrations, also at small scale, leaves some uncertainties in the evaluation of environmental burdens and exposure. The role of the aspect of the mountain side and the seasonal variation in the contamination levels was analysed by means of several soil samples taken from central Italian Alps. A greater contamination content was present in northern soils with a mean ratio between the north vs. south normalised concentration of around a factor of 2 (North-South Enrichment Factor). Experimental factors agreed with theoretical calculations based on temperature-specific calculated K(sa) values. From May to November consistent differences in normalised concentrations up to 5-fold were observed. A dynamic picture of the POP contamination in high altitudinal soils is derived from the data in this work, with spring-summer half-lives between 60 and 120 days for most of the compounds.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Milan, Via Celoria 26, Milan I-20133, Italy. paolo.tremolada@unimi.it
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tremolada
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Parolini
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Binelli
authors.forename: Cristiano
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ballabio
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Comolli
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Provini
mesh_terms: D000531:Altitude; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D007558:Italy; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000032:analysis*; D012621:Seasons; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D009930:Organic Chemicals; D012989:Soil Pollutants