Sörengård, Mattias and Kikuchi, Johannes and Wiberg, Karin and Ahrens, Lutz
(2022).
Spatial distribution and load of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in background soils in Sweden.
Chemosphere. 295
, 133944
[Research article]
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Abstract
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are known to be persistent, bioaccumulative, and have adverse health effects, but very little is known about PFAS in the terrestrial environment and factors influencing their distribution. This paper presents one of the first comprehensive studies investigating PFAS (n = 28) in background forest soils (n = 27) on national scale across Sweden. The results showed that 16 of 28 target PFAS were present and all sites contained at least three PFAS compounds, with total concentrations ranging between 0.40 ng/g dry weight (dw) and 6.6 ng/g dw. Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) showed the highest detection frequency of 89% and a median concentration of 0.39 ng/g dw. The PFOS loads (ng/m(3)) showed a distinct spatial distribution, with a significant exponential increase from north to south (R-2 = 0.55; p < 0.001) and west to east (R-2 = 0.35; p < 0.01). In some parts of Sweden, the compound 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonate (6:2 FTSA) had a higher median concentration (1.4 ng/g dw), but was in comparison to PFOS more impacted by local sources. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) showed regional clustering of PFAS compositional profiles, indicating that PFAS soil background concentrations are functions of spatial variations at local, regional, and countrywide scale. Such spatial trends have not been observed previously and it could not be deduced whether they are indicative of trends on a global scale, or country-specific and better explained by proximity to densely populated urban areas. An interpolation and extrapolation raster map created from the results was used to calculate the average total PFAS load on Swedish soils. Estimated total load in the top 10-cm soil layer was 2.7 +/- 2.4 tons for PFOS and 16 +/- 14 tons for n-ary sumation PFAS, indicating that soil carries a considerable legacy of past PFAS release.
Authors/Creators: | Sörengård, Mattias and Kikuchi, Johannes and Wiberg, Karin and Ahrens, Lutz | ||||||
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Title: | Spatial distribution and load of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in background soils in Sweden | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Chemosphere | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2022 | ||||||
Volume: | 295 | ||||||
Article number: | 133944 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 7 | ||||||
Publisher: | PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD | ||||||
ISSN: | 0045-6535 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 401 Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries > Soil Science (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 105 Earth and Related Environmental Sciences > Environmental Sciences (social aspects to be 507) | ||||||
Keywords: | PFAS, PFOS, Soil, Deposition | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-116400 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-116400 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 27335 | ||||||
Faculty: | NJ - Fakulteten för naturresurser och jordbruksvetenskap | ||||||
Department: | (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 18 Mar 2022 10:25 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 18 Mar 2022 10:31 |
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