Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous contaminants entering the environment from both natural and anthropogenic sources. The main anthropogenic sources are processes for the production of electricity and thermal energy, waste incineration, road traffic and motor vehicles, aircraft, boats, steam and diesel-electric locomotives and some industrial technologies. Besides these main sources there are still a number of others, less important, e.g. working with hot tar, asphalt pavement wear and tire during vehicle operation, coking plants, plants for processing of oil and some metals plants. An indispensable source in the cities as domestic solid fuel burning furnaces.
Although Hradec Králové do not belong to the cities with extreme levels of contaminants in the air, according to the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, the levels of benzo(a)pyrene in the case of annual average concentrations exceeding the maximum allowable concentrations occurred here in 2013. While air quality is monitored regularly, the PAHs contents in soils and vegetation are not so. In our simple single experiment, we decided to assess the level of contamination of soil PAHs in the land of Hradec Kralove. It was collected 86 soil samples, in which were determined contents of 16 PAHs. Further, mushroom fruit samples that were found in the individual sampling points were analyzed.
The results showed large variability of PAHs content in the city, but did not indicate significant levels of contamination. The sum of all the determined PAU does not exceed the permissible value of the contents of these elements in soils. However, in several cases exceeding the maximum allowable content in soils with different PAHs, especially fluoranthene, anthracene and chrysene. Linear correlation analysis showed that the levels of all monitored PAHs are close correlations, which indicates that the entire spectre of PAHs in this case always originates from the same source. The PAH contents in mushrooms were in most cases below the detection limit of the determination, only rarely the detectable contents of individual PAHs were found (Cylocybe gambosa, Agaricus arvensis). We can speculate about the limited ability of fungi to accumulate PAHs or their ability to degrade these substances.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:256826 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Bartošová, Barbora |
| Contributors | Száková, Jiřina, Radim, Radim |
| Publisher | Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | Czech |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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