Concentrations and uptake pathways of polychlorinated biphenyls from soil to grass

Abstract

Field coupled samples in soil and grass were collected to determine the concentrations and identify the uptake pathways of PCBs into the grass at a pasture from Scotland, UK. Concentrations of indicator PCBs (∑7PCBs) in soils ranged from 0.20 to 0.88 ng g−1 dw (dry weight), with a mean of 0.33 ng g−1 dw, and in grass ranged from 0.20 to 2.14 ng g−1 dw, with a mean of 0.48 ng g−1 dw. The comprehensive factors of low concentrations and detection rate (PCB28: 18.8%; PCB52: 37.5%) of PCBs in soil, as well as continuously declined air concentrations of PCBs in the UK since the 1990s suggested that the secondary emission from the soil is becoming the supplied source of PCBs to air and grass. The significant correlations between bioconcentration factor (BCF) values and the log KOW (R = −0.850, p < 0.05) and log KOA (R = −0.860, p < 0.05) of indicator PCB congeners were found in the present study, indicating that these two parameters are likely to affect the bioaccumulation and uptake of grass. A generic one-compartment model was employed to identify uptake pathways of grass and evaluate the uptake amounts for PCBs. This suggested that the most important pathway for uptake of PCBs by grass was at the aerial part, and the difference of PCBs concentrations between leaves and roots was about four orders of magnitude. Removing and risk transfer of PCBs or other organic pollutants by grass need to be investigated and assessed further.