Fuels Headlines Gatwick decision delayed but government minded to approve second runway Editor’s Pick Headlines Legislation New guide aims to help implement an electric bus fleet Research undertaken in the Irati Forest in the western Pyrenees has highlighted how pollutants can settle in ostensibly clean environments, having travelled long distances through the atmosphere.
University of the Basque Country’s IBeA research group examined two species – one of moss, one lichen – to find the extend to which they contained traces of persistent organic compounds (POPs). landscape, pyrenees, nature, mountain, river, forest, huesca, pyrenees, pyrenees, pyrenees, pyrenees, pyrenees Ainara Gredilla, an IBeA researcher said: ‘These organic compounds travel a long way through the atmosphere on the wind and they build up in the environment: they are absorbed and accumulated by living beings.
‘Areas at high altitudes are very sensitive to persistent organic pollutants, so we wanted to find out the extent to which they had accumulated in the lichens and mosses in Irati. In fact, the Irati forest is regarded as a clean environment, since, apart from tourism, there is no human activity other than sustainable livestock and agriculture.’
POPs are a broad category of chemicals that tend not to degrade in the environment. They build up in the food chain, and are known for travelling long distances through the air.
Within the categories of POPs that the team tested for (OCPs, PAHs and PCBs), PAHs were found in concentrations ‘significantly higher’ than the other two. PAHs are Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, a group […]
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