Particles and vegetation: implications for the transfer of particle-bound organic contaminants to vegetation

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the mechanisms responsible for the transfer of atmospheric particulate deposition and soil particulate re-suspension onto vegetation. The nature of atmospheric aerosols and dryrwet particulate deposition are reviewed, together with information from the literature on radionuclides as tracers of the air particlersoil particle to vegetation transfer processes. Information from these fields is used to make inferences about the potential significance of these pathways in supplying particle-bound semi-volatile organic chemicals e.g. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans, polychlori- nated biphenyls. to vegetation. Retention of compounds on particles brought to the above-ground plant surfaces is discussed. In the absence of definitive fieldrexperimental studies, calculations are made drawing on the literature data to estimate the contributions of atmospheric and soil particle-bound organic contaminants to the plant concentration. These show that depending on the site-specific, species-specific and compound-specific scenarios considered, particulate-bound inputs may be negligible or may dominate the supply of organic contaminants to the above-ground portion of plants. However, fieldrexperimental studies and direct measurements are needed to provide reliable quantitative data on this topic