Trichloroacetic acid in the vegetation of polluted and remote areas of both hemispheres—Part II: salt lakes as novel sources of natural chlorohydrocarbons

One of the issues provided for by the 1993 existing substances regulation (793/93/EEC) is the assessment of the environmental risk emanating from waste materials. One such material is the highly volatile substance perchloroethene (PER; TECE). PER is produced in large quantities all over the world by the chemical industry. There are many industrial processes in which PER escapes into the environment, especially the atmosphere. It has since been proven that after entering plants via the air/leaf pathway, airborne PER can be metabolised into the phytotoxic substance trichloroacetic acid. However our own studies detected relatively high levels of TCA in environmental compartments in regions far away from industry which cannot be explained by the anthropogenic input of airborne substances into the relevant ecosystems. This indicates that natural PER emittents also exist and must be identified, in order to find out more about the global spread of PER. This paper reports on the findings of related fieldwork in the Kalmykian Steppe. This area of steppe in southern Russia spans an area extending west-to-east from the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and north-to-south between the Greater Caucasus and Volgograd. The main aim of the experiments in the Kalmykian Steppe was to study water from lakes, rivers and springs with differing levels of salinity. The concentrations of the chlorinated hydrocarbons (VCHCs) chloroform (CHCl3), tetrachloromethane (CCl4), 1,1,1-trichloroethane (1,1,1-C2H3Cl3), trichloroethene (TRI; C2HCl3), tetrachloroethene (PER; C2Cl4) and TCA in these waters were measured, along with the levels of cations and anions and the pH-value of the waters. The measurements indicate that in particular water from salt lakes located in semiarid/arid areas of the study region must be considered as new types of natural emittents of PER and other chlorinated hydrocarbons as well as trichloroacetic acid. Furthermore, attention is drawn to ecological impacts resulting from the occurrence of these substances in connection with the desertification observed in this area since the mid-20th century. Possible global associations between TCA phytotoxicity, the consumption of water by contaminated plants and the resulting impact on the regional water cycle are discussed.