Distribution And Characteristics Of PAHs In The Changbai Mountain Soil

Changbai Mountain is the highest mountain (2750 m) in the Northeast of China. It is an UN international biosphere reserve area. In this area few human activities are taking place, However, with the development of tourism, traffic movement through the road and load on vehicle recently increased. In addition, from the autumn to spring (about 8 months), the mountain was covered with snow, the particulates were favorable to deposit on the snow from the atmosphere. In order to understand environmental quality and to identify pollution source of the Changbai Mountain,18 PAHs as a model chemicals were determined from the soil samples. Total 42 soil samples were collected along different side and latitude of the Changbai Mountain in July and August 2009. In the north side, south side and west side, the∑PAHs concentration ranged from 23.1～223.3 ng g-1,74.7～512.3 ng g-1 and 94.6～720.5 ng g-1, respectively. Although Changbai Mountain travel and tourism activities were mainly focused in the north side, lowest levels of∑PAHs were recorded in this area. Moreover, levels of∑PAHs were increased progressively as latitude increase in the south and west side of the Changbai Mountain while the similar trend was hardly found in the north side. From composition and source identification of PAHs in the three sides, high molecular weight PAHs and mixture sources are dominant in the south and west side, and low molecular weight PAHs and fossil fuel source are dominant in the north side. Overall, long-range atmospheric transport and cold trapping deposition have been occurring in the south and west side, and local fossil fuel is a major factor affecting environmental quality in the north side of the Changbai Mountain.