Emission of climate relevant volatile organochlorines by plants occurring in temperate forests

S.T. Forczek, F. Laturnus, J. Doležalová, J. Holík and Z. Wimmer
Additional contact information
S.T. Forczek: Isotope Laboratory, Institute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic
F. Laturnus: Helmholtz Zentrum München GmbH Neuherberg, Research Unit Microbe-Plant Interactions, WG Plant Endophyte Physiology, Munich, Germany
J. Doležalová: Isotope Laboratory, Institute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic
J. Holík: Isotope Laboratory, Institute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic
Z. Wimmer: Isotope Laboratory, Institute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic

Plant, Soil and Environment, 2015, vol. 61, issue 3, 103-108

Abstract: Chlorine, one of the most abundant elements in nature, undergoes a complex biogeochemical cycle in the environment, involved in the formation of volatile organochlorines (VOCls), which in turn can contribute to environmental problems, contaminate natural ecosystems, and are of public health concern. Several industrial and natural sources of VOCls have already been identified; however, data - particularly on the natural sources - are still scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate the diversity of emission of VOCls from soil and several undergrowth plants collected in temperate spruce forest ecosystem and the effect of salting on the VOCl emission of plants. Undergrowth plants were found to emit chloroform (CHCl3) in the range of 2.2-201 pmol/day/g dry weight (DW), tetrachloromethane (CCl4) 0-23.5 pmol/day/g DW, and tetrachloroethene (C2Cl4) 0-13.5 pmol/day/g DW; the average emission rates were about 10 times higher than that of soil (2.9-47.2; 0-5.8; 0-3.6 pmol/day/g DW of CHCl3; CCl4; C2Cl4 emission, respectively). Addition of sodium chloride solution in most cases caused an increase in the emission of CHCl3 and caused a species specific - effect on the emissions of CCl4 and C2Cl4. The results suggest that the emission of VOCls from spruce forest contribute to the atmospheric input of reactive chlorine; however, on a global scale it is only a minor net source.

Keywords: volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons; biodegradation; Sphagnum moss; ozone-depleting substances; headspace cryofocusing method; boreal forests (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/900/2014-PSE.html (text/html)
http://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/900/2014-PSE.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnlpse:v:61:y:2015:i:3:id:900-2014-pse

DOI: 10.17221/900/2014-PSE

Access Statistics for this article

Plant, Soil and Environment is currently edited by Kateřina Součková

More articles in Plant, Soil and Environment from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().