Occurrence of chiral organochlorine compounds in the environmental matrices from King George Island and Ardley Island, west Antarctica

Abstract Chiral organochlorine compounds (OCs) were measured in various environmental matrices (air, soil and vegetation) from west Antarctica using high resolution gas chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS). They were generally detected at a global background leve...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific Reports
Main Authors: Wang, Pu, Zhang, Qinghua, Li, Yingming, Zhu, Chaofei, Chen, Zhaojing, Zheng, Shucheng, Sun, Huizhong, Liang, Yong, Jiang, Guibin
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2015
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Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep13913
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep13913
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep13913.pdf
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Summary:Abstract Chiral organochlorine compounds (OCs) were measured in various environmental matrices (air, soil and vegetation) from west Antarctica using high resolution gas chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS). They were generally detected at a global background level compared with the previous studies. α-HCH and PCB-183 was observed in all the matrices except PCB-183 in two soil samples, while PCB-95, -136, -149, -174, -176 and o,p’-DDT were detected in most air but only a few solid matrices. Enantiomeric fractions (EFs) indicated that nonracemic residues of chiral OCs occurred in all the matrices and a wide variation of the EF values was observed in the vegetation. There was significant discrepancy between the EF values of PCB-183 and the racemic values, indicating that stereoselective depletion of PCB-183 was probably associated with the water-air exchange. The EFs values of α-HCH were generally lower than the racemic values but no statistical difference was obtained in all the matrices except lichen, supporting the assumption that water-air exchange may make influence on long-range transport of α-HCH.