Environmental fate and distribution of sodium [ 14C] pentachlorophenate in a section of urban wasteland ecosystem

Abstract

An urban terrestrial microecosystem has been used under outdoor conditions to study the transfer of chemical residues within the system components. The microecosystem consisted of soil monoliths obtained from a site with an established vegetation cover dominated by goldenrod, Solidago gigantea. The microecosystem contained integrated food chain elements composed of primary producers, herbivores and carnivores. The system was stocked with indicator insect species, snails ( Cepaea nemoralis) and earthworms ( Allolobophora caliginosa), captured from the original site. Evaluation of the system was made using radiolabelled sodium pentachlorophenate (PCP-Na) which was applied as a single application at an equivalent rate of 5kg ha −1. The mass balance revealed that, after 131 days, in the autumn, and after 222 days, in the winter, that 43 and 39% radiocarbon, respectively, was recoverable from the microecosystem. The unaccounted radiocarbon was very probably removed through volatilization and photomineralization of the compound. PCP residues on foliage decreased rapidly, 50% of which were metabolised within 15 days. Most of the radiocarbon remaining in the system after 131 days was in the top soil and plant litter, transmitted mainly through washing off by rain and leaf litter fall. There was a variation in the uptake of PCP-Na residues in the food chain organisms, where the total radiocarbon concentrations during the first 19 days of exposure ranged, e.g. in snails, from 3 to 0.6 μg g −1, in springtails from 5 to 105; in beetles ( Amara fusca) from 3 to 1, in spiders from 13 to 11, and in harvestman from 31 to 77 μg g −1. The ecological magnification indices (EM) of all the organisms with respect to their main food source, i.e. plant litter, demonstrated no bioconcentration effects. This is attributed to the metabolism of PCP-Na by the organisms and its rapid excretion. The urban wasteland ecosystem contained in outdoor lysimeters employed as a model gives valuable information and has considerable value in predicting the ecological fate of industrial chemicals.