OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES 2004 UBAA

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Monitoring Network of the Alpine Region for POPs
and other Organic Pollutants
www.monarpop.at
Stresa, June 2006
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Project Team
Germany
Austria
Switzerland
Slovenia
Italy
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Project Team (incl. subcontractors)

• Austrian Central Institute for Meteorology and
  Geodynamics
• Austrian Federal Environment Agency Project
  Management
• Austrian Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry,
  Environment and Water Resources - Leadpartner
• Bavarian State Ministry for Environment, Health
  and Consumer Protection
• German Federal Environmental Agency
• GSF - National Research Center for Environment
  and Health
• INCA Laboratory, Veneto
• Institute of Organic Analytical Chemistry, Univ.
  Basel
• Regional Agency for Environmental Protection of
  Lombardia
• Regional Agency for Environmental Prevention and
  Protection of Veneto
• Slovenian Forestry Institute
• Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and
  Landscape
• Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and
  Landscape Research

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• The Reasons why

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The Reasons why

• To gain information on the pollution load in the
  Alps
• carry out steps of awareness raising, information
  and implementation
• to protect the rich natural heritage in the Alps
• as a clean and healthy environment.

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The Reasons why POPs

• are a heterogeneous group of biologically harmful
  compounds
• are toxic to organisms including humans
• They degrade slowly and accumulate in organic
  matter and in organisms.
• Some POPs are commercially produced, others are
  undesired by-products of industry, transport or
  domestic needs.

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The Reasons why POPs
MONARPOP includes all compounds which are listed
and laid-down in the UNEP Stockholm Convention on
POPs and in the UN-ECE Protocol on
POPs. MONARPOP focuses as well on possible new
POPs and upcoming pollutants. The screening
includes PCB, polybrominated biphenylethers (PBDE
used as flame retardents), combustion products
(dioxins and furans, PAH) and various
Organochlorine pesticides (OCP), Short chain
chlorinated paraffins (SCCP), selected
chlorinated hydrocarbons Additional selected
samples perfluorinated compounds (PFOS), and
Nonylphenol
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The Reasons why

• Alpine regions have unfavourable conditions with
  regard to the POP input

• Barrier effects for long-range transported air
  masses
• Higher precipitation at higher altitudes ? more
  deposition
• Higher wind velocities at higher altitudes ?
  more deposition
• Lower temperatures at higher altitudes ? cold
  condensation, less volatilisation and less
  degradation of POPs

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Starting point

• Information on the load of alpine regions with
  POPs are scarce
• First results reveal that alpine regions might be
  an important sink for POPs
• Higher located areas seem to have higher
  concentrations of POPs
• Unfavourable conditions of alpine regions with
  regard to the input of POPs
• Requirements of the UN-ECE POPs-Protocol (1998)
  and the UNEP Stockholm Convention on POPs (2001)
  for monitoring and research
• MONARPOP project

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The Project Design

• MONARPOP goals are

• Identifying the long-range transport and the load
  with POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants) and
  other organic compounds in remote alpine regions.
• Identifying regional differences and altitudinal
  effects on the load with POPs and other organic
  compounds.
• Establishing mass inventories of POPs bound in
  forests in the alpine region (soil and needles).
• Finding indications for sources of the POPs
  detected in alpine regions.

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The Project Design

• MONARPOP goals are

• Investigating possible effects and biological
  impacts of the detected loads (bioassay tests,
  analysis of enzyme activities).
• To provide information to the decision makers and
  to establish a monitoring tool which will allow
  by future reassessments to control the success of
  the POP convention

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The Project Design
Sampling Sites Geographical and altitude
distribution
m a.s.l
Zugspitze3000m
Sonnblick3106m
Weißfluhjoch2966m
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The Project Design
Altitude profiles
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The Project Design

• Why forests?
• Main terrestrial sink for such compounds
• Prevailing ecosystem type in the alpine region
• Rich in species and a lot of important functions
  (e.g. drinking water supply, recreative features,
  protection from avalanches, mudflows)
• No disturbance by soil tilling or pesticides
  biomass harvesting is rare. Therefore, detected
  loads origin only from atmospheric inputs.

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• Sampling of Terrestrial Matrices

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Sampling of Terrestrial Matrices
Humus/soil and needle sampling
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Sampling of Airborne Pollutants
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Sampling of Airborne Pollutants
Air samplers are installed at three
meteorological stations
Austria Sonnblick 3106m
Germany Zugspitze 2650m
SwitzerlandWeißfluhjoch 2663m
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Sampling of Airborne Pollutants
Active Sampling
4 filters at each sampler are used to distinguish
between pollutant imports from different
regions. The Austrian Central Institute for
Meteorology and Geodynamics determines the travel
routes (trajectories) of the incoming air
masses.
Filter 1 Air masses from Northwest and West
 Examples for source regions Great Britain,
Germany
Filter 2 Air masses from Northeast   Examples
for source regions Czech Republic, Poland,
Baltic region
Filter 3 Air masses from Southwest, South and
Southeast   Examples for source regions Africa,
Spain, Italy, Adria
Filter 4 Air masses from Cleanair regions  
Examples for source regions Atlantic sea, Polar
regions
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Sampling of Ambient Air
Sampling equipment
developed by Austrian Federal Environment
AgencyandGerman GSF National Research Center
for Environment and Health
in cooperation with the manufacturers Dioxin
Monitoring Systems, DIGITEL enviro-senseand
Kroneis
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Sampling of Ambient Air
The Low Volume sampler
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Sampling of Ambient Air
The High Volume sampler
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Sampling of Bulk Deposition
Deposition sampler
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SPMD Samplers
SPMD in meteorological cabins
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Installation of Air and Deposition Sampler
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Sampling Site for Airborne Pollutants
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Sonnblick, 9. May 2005
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Zugspitze, 20. December 2005
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Sonnblick, 7. December 2005
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Outlook
First outcomes and results are expected in 2006
One example First detection of chlorinated
paraffins in needles (Iozza et al., Institute of
Organic Analytical Chemistry, Univ. Basel)
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Acknowledgements
MONARPOP is funded by the EU-Interreg-IIIb
Alpine Space Programme and by national funds
from several project partners
I would like to thank the following project
partners for the great cooperation and their
efforts to install this monitoring network
Rodolfo Bassan, Claudio Belis, Dieter Heublein,
Saverio Iozza, Thomas Jakl, Gert Jakobi, Manfred
Kirchner, Wilhelm Knoth, Norbert Kräuchi,
Walkiria Levy-Lopez, Teresa Magnani, Wolfgang
Moche, Michael Oehme, Ivo Offenthaler, Barbara
Perthen-Palmisano, David Schmid, Karl-Werner
Schramm, Helga Schrott, Peter Schröder, Isabella
Sedivy, Primo Simoncic, Peter Weiss, Ursa Vilhar