Along alpine vertical profiles located in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Slovenia, concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), namely organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) like dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCH), heptachlor, aldrin, dieldrin and mirex, were measured in forest soils. Despite a great number of parameters, which are influenced by orographic and meteorological parameters and forest stand characteristics, a marked vertical increase of concentrations of some organochlorine compounds could be assessed; the increase was restricted to northern and central alpine profiles. On the basis of climatological data of several sites adjacent to the altitudinal profils, we found that the vertical increase can be mainly ascribed to a certain cold condensation effect. Further key parameters explaining the accumulation of POPs are the soil organic carbon stocks, the turnover times, re-volatilisation and degradation processes and the precipitation amounts, which vary with altitude. The measurements were performed in the framework of the MONARPOP-project.
Jakobi G Belis C Kr(a)uchi N Moche W Simon(c)i(c) P Uhl M Weiss P Schramm K.-W Kirchner M Faus-Kessler T Levy W Henkelmann B Bernh(o)ft S Kotalik J Zsolnay A Bassan R
Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health,Institutes of Ecological Regional Agency for Environmental Protection of Lombardy,Via Stelvio 35,23100 Sondrio,Italy Swiss Federal Institute for Forest,Snow and Landscape Research,Zürcherstrasse 111,8903 Birmensdorf,S Umweltbundesamt GmbH,Spittelauer L(a)nde 5,1090 Vienna,Austria Slovenian Forestry Institute,Dept. for Forest Ecology,Vecna pot 2,1000 Ljubljana,Slovenia Regional Agency for Environmental Prevention and Protection of Veneto,Via F. Tomea 5,32100 Belluno,I