Accumulation of elements in the annual rings of Scots pine trees in the vicinity of a copper-nickel smelter measured by scanning EDXRF
✍ Scribed by C. Larsson; H. S. Helmisaari
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 341 KB
- Volume
- 27
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0049-8246
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✦ Synopsis
Trees growing near smelters are severely a †ected by airborne pollution. In several projects the e †ects of heavy metals on the vegetation have been investigated. One method used is to measure the elemental concentrations in tree rings, which gives the possibility of comparing concentrations for di †erent years since the tree rings to some extent reÑect the conditions during the growth years. In this study, the pollution from a smelter plant in the south-western part of Finland was monitored. In the past, the emissions of heavy metals, such as copper, nickel and zinc, have been high in the area close to the smelter, but during the last 5 years the emissions from the smelter have decreased owing to new cleaning techniques. The forests in the vicinity of the smelter were studied by the Finnish Forest Research Institute, using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) for measurements of elements in the plants. As a complement to these measurements, high-resolution individual tree ring measurements with the energy-dispersive x-ray Ñuorescence (EDXRF) technique have been made. The aim was to see if any detectable change in wood chemistry occurred when the pollution burden was reduced. The results from trees growing in an area close to the smelter were compared with the results from trees 8 km away. Tree rings from two time periods, 1971-75 and 1991-93, were examined. Di †erences in the levels of K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Rb and Sr were found between the areas. The Cu/Zn ratio was found to decrease in the last annual rings in the trees from the most polluted area. The results from the EDXRF measurements were also compared with the corresponding results from the ICP-AES measurements.