HR: 1340h
AN: B33C-1050    [Abstracts]
TI: Probing Arctic Sediment Constituents for Their Ability to Promote the Degradation of Persistent Organic Pollutants
AU: * Dague, H L
EM: heather.dague@villanova.edu
AF: Villanova University, Dept. of Chemistry 800 Lancaster Ave. , Villanova, PA 19085 United States
AU: Grannas, A M
EM: amanda.grannas@villanova.edu
AF: Villanova University, Dept. of Chemistry 800 Lancaster Ave. , Villanova, PA 19085 United States
AU: Scully, D M
EM: dana.scully@rose-hulman.edu
AF: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemistry 5500 Wabash Ave, Terre Haute, IN 47803 United States
AU: Miller, P L
EM: penney.l.miller@rose-hulman.edu
AF: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemistry 5500 Wabash Ave, Terre Haute, IN 47803 United States
AB: The presence of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in polar regions is of concern because their toxicological properties may have a deleterious impact on these fragile ecosystems. Although the presence of POPs in the Arctic is widely acknowledged, little work has considered the potential for POPs to be transformed via natural processes in the Arctic environment. To the best of our knowledge, this present work is the first to study the ability of Arctic sediment constituents to promote the transformation of POPs. Several sediments were collected from various locations in Toolik, Alaska (68° 38'N, 149° 43'W) and the reactive sediment constituents were extracted with MilliQ water. The extracts were screened for their ability to promote reduction reactions by spiking with the chemical probe, pentachloronitrobenzene. The target POPs aldrin, dieldrin, hexachlorobenzene, 2,2',6,6'-tetrachlorobiphenyl, and 3,3',4,5'-tetrachlorobiphenyl were spiked into the most reactive of the sediment extracts and their degradation was monitored over several weeks. We observed selective degradation of persistent organic pollutants in Alaskan sediments and found that pentachloronitrobenzene was a useful probe in predicting sediment reductive reactivity.
DE: 0432 Contaminant and organic biogeochemistry (0792)
DE: 0471 Oxidation/reduction reactions (4851)
DE: 0478 Pollution: urban, regional and global (0345, 4251)
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005