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O. Froescheis+*, R. Looser+, K. Ballschmiter+*, W.M. Jarman, G. Calliet
+ Department of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, University of Ulm, D-89069 Ulm-Germany
* Center of Technology Assessment in Baden-Württemberg, D-70565 Stuttgart-Germany
W.M. Jarman, University of Utah, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Energy and Geoscience Institute, 421 Wakara Way, Suite 125, Salt Lake City UT 84108
G. Calliet, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, POB 450, Moss Landing, CA 95039
The concept of an environmental multiphase distribution of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) regulated by the physicochemical properties of the respective compounds is well established. The theoretical aspects of it are discussed among other by D. Mackay at the University of Toronto (and his coworkers), whereas we have been investigating the actual problem in the field for several years.
The general principle of the interaction of global mass flow in the basic environmental compartments (atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biota) and the molecular properties of persistent pollutants can be summarized by the old chemical statement "similia in similibus" - equal to equal.
While the stable and volatile fluorochlorohydrocarbons take the stratosphere as the ultimate environmental compartment, the semivolatile POPs will end up in the terrestrial environment in the upper soil of the forests, collected and carried off by the leaves and the needles. In the global marine environment their fate is to be collected in the fauna of the abyss. Transported by living (food cascades) or dead biota (absorbed to the detritus and marine snow) semivolatile POPs reach the deep-sea where they biomagnify in the food web.
We have analyzed a variety of fish and invertebrates collected in the Monterey Bay Canyon for POPs. We have found a variety of POPs, and some at relatively high concentrations, supporting the hypothesis of the contamination of the deep-sea by POPs.
Will the fauna of the abyss in its way mirror the accumulation of long-term of persistent anthropogenic chemicals as we observe it for the volatiles in the stratosphere, and eventually accumulate to levels that are detrimental to deep-sea ecosystems?
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