Influence of Climate and Land Use Change on Spatially Resolved Volatilization of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) from Background Soils

• Published in: Environmental science & technology Vol. 47; no. 13; pp. 7052 - 7059
• Main Authors: Komprda, Jiří, Komprdová, Klára, Sáňka, Milan, Možný, Martin, Nizzetto, Luca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 02.07.2013
• Subjects: Agricultural land; agricultural soils; Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Air Pollutants - analysis; Air Pollutants - chemistry; air temperature; Applied sciences; arable soils; Atmospheric pollution; Biological and medical sciences; Biological and physicochemical properties of pollutants. Interaction in the soil; carbon; Climate; Czech Republic; Dichlorodiphenyl Dichloroethylene - analysis; Dichlorodiphenyl Dichloroethylene - chemistry; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics; Environmental impact; Environmental Monitoring; Europe; Exact sciences and technology; forests; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; grasslands; Hexachlorobenzene - analysis; Hexachlorobenzene - chemistry; land cover; Land use; land use change; Models, Theoretical; persistent organic pollutants; Pesticides; Pollutants; Pollutants physicochemistry study: properties, effects, reactions, transport and distribution; Pollution; Pollution, environment geology; Soil and sediments pollution; Soil and water pollution; Soil Pollutants - analysis; Soil Pollutants - chemistry; Soil science; soil temperature; Soils; Temperature; Volatilization; Czech Republic; Europe; Agricultural chemical product; Pollutant behavior; Pesticides; Environmental factor; Agricultural soil; Soil pollution; Organic chlorine compounds; Pollutant emission; Land use; Dynamical climatology; Persistent organic pollutant; Chemical pollution; Climate change; Human activity; Organochlorine compounds; Volatilization; Air pollution; Air ground interface; Spatial resolution; Organic compounds; Anthropogenic factor
• DOI: 10.1021/es3048784
• ISSN: 0013-936X; 1520-5851

The subject of this study is the assessment of the influence of climate and land use change on the potential re-emission of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) from background and agricultural soils. A deterministic spatially and temporally explicit model of the air–surface exchange was created, fed with distributed data of soil and atmospheric concentrations from real measurements, and run under various scenarios of temperature and land use change for a case study area representative of central European conditions. To describe land use influence, some important features were implemented including effect of plowing, influence of land cover, temperature of soil, and seasonal changes of air layer stability. Results show that volatilization of pesticides from soil largely exceeded dry gas deposition in most of the area. Agricultural soils accounted for more than 90% of the total re-emissions both because of the generally higher soil fugacities (higher loads of chemicals and relatively low organic carbon content), but also due to physical characteristics and land management practices enhancing the dynamics of the exchange. An increase of 1 °C in air temperature produced an increase of 8% in the averaged total volatilization flux, however this effect can be neutralized by a change of land use of 10% of the arable lands to grassland or forest, which is consistent with projected land use change in Europe. This suggests that future assessment of climate impact on POP fate and distribution should take into consideration land use aspects.