Aspects of particulate dry deposition in the urban environment.

Micro-scale deposition models, typically used for pipes, were adapted to outdoor situations and combined with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations of flow conditions in order to study the fine structure of the deposition velocity on ground, walls, and roofs in an urban environment. Several deposition modeling techniques taken from the literature were used for the predictions. The urban geometry was represented by two different blocks of houses, which together with two wind directions gave four different cases to study. The calculations show large local variations of the deposition velocity resulting in a pattern similar to the variation of the friction velocity. This demonstrates the strong dependence of the deposition velocity on the friction velocity. Further alteration of the deposition velocity is caused by the variation of the micro-scale roughness and different surface temperatures. The results presented provide some guidance for where to look for hotspots of deposited material and also show that a representation of the deposition velocity in a city by only one or just a few values is a great simplification locally and could lead to serious mistakes.

Natural fluctuations of mercury and lead in Greenland lake sediments.

Given the current scenario of increasing global temperatures, it is valuable to assess the potential influence of changing climate on pollution distribution and deposition. In this study we use long-term sediment records from three lakes (spanning ca. 1000, 4800, and 8000 years, respectively) from the Greenland west coast to assess recent and long-term variations in mercury (Hg) and lead (Pb), including stable Pb isotopes (206Pb and 207Pb), in terms of pollution and climate influences. The temporal trends in sediment deposited from about the mid-19th century and forward are in general agreement with the history of industrial emissions at lower latitudes. Therefore, in recent sediment a possible influence from changing climate is difficult to assess. However, by using deeper sediment layers we show that changes in Greenland climate caused changes in the lake influx of material from regional aeolian activity, which resulted in large fluctuations in Hg and Pb concentrations and 206Pb/207Pb ratios. The aeolian material is primarily derived from glacio-fluvial material with low Hg and Pb concentrations and a different isotopic composition. For one of the lakes, the fluctuations in Hg concentrations (10 to 70 ng g(-1)) prior to the 19th century are equal to the anthropogenic increase in the uppermost layers, suggesting that when studying recent concentrations and time trends of pollution in relatively low-contaminated areas such as the Arctic, the early natural fluctuations must be considered.

Toxic gas clouds: effects and implications of dry deposition on concentration.

The influence of the dry deposition process on concentration pertaining to toxic gas clouds was investigated by model calculations. Three main release scenarios were simulated, with nine micrometeorological cases considered for each. To compare and confirm the results, two model types, a stochastic particle model and a box-type model, were independently used to simulate many of the different cases. The results showed that the effects of dry deposition may be strong for releases at, or confined close to the ground, e.g. neutral or unstable stratification can cause higher concentrations than stable stratification after 10-15 km. Risk distances are in turn affected and may be substantially shortened, e.g. for a zero-height release like that from an evaporating pool, a 50% reduction in total airborne substance may occur within 500 m at a low wind velocity and neutral or stable stratification.

Time trends of selected persistent organic pollutants in lake sediments from Greenland.

Sediments from seven lakes in West Greenland were used as natural archives to study past and present levels of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls, tri- to decachlorinated), tetra-BDE #47 (2,2',4,4'-bromodiphenyl ether), chlordane (cis- and trans-octachlordane) and HxCBz (hexachlorobenzene). The concentrations found are lower than or comparable to concentrations found in sediments from other Arctic regions and one to 2 orders of magnitude lower than concentrations typically found in sediments at lower latitudes. The observed temporal trends (direct and indirect dating) show a decreasing total PCB concentration. Even though local contamination sources exist, the POP deposition in the studied area is most likely a result from long-range transport. The hypothesis about "cold condensation" suggests a latitudinal fractionation to occur between different volatile compounds during the transport toward the pole. In this study a time delay in the deposition for the low-chlorinated PCBs (tri- and tetrachlorinated), compared to their emission histories and compared to higher chlorinated PCBs, was indicated. Although very low tetra-BDE #47 concentrations are observed in this study, there are indications for an increasing concentration in recent sediment layers that may reflect increasing environmental concentrations at lower latitudes. The investigated pesticides are still in use at lower latitudes, however neither chlordane nor HxCBz show any distinct temporal trend of increasing or decreasing concentration toward the sediment surface.