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Organic compound tracers of fine soil and sand particles during summer in the metropolitan area of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

Soil and sand fine particles, which may be resuspended as fine dust in the atmosphere, contain a variety of anthropogenic and natural organic components. Samples of fine soil and sand particles (sieved to <125 μM) were collected from the Riyadh area in the summer of 2003 and extracted with a mixture of dichloromethane and methanol (3:1, v:v). The derivatized total extracts were analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry in order to characterize the composition and sources of the organic components. Both anthropogenic and natural biogenic inputs were the major sources of the organic compounds in these extracts. Discarded plastics and vehicular emission products were the major anthropogenic sources in the fine particles from populated areas of the city. Their tracers were plasticizers, UCM, n-alkanes, hopanes and traces of steranes. Vegetation was the major natural source of organic compounds in samples from outside Riyadh and included n-alkanols, n-alkanoic acids, n-alkanes, methyl alkanoates, sterols and triterpenoids. Carbohydrates had high concentrations (42–54%) in all samples and indicate sources from decomposition of cellulose and/or the presence of viable microbiota such as bacteria and fungi. The results were also compared with the data obtained in winter 2002 and showed that anthropogenic inputs were higher in summer than in winter, whereas the opposite trend was observed for natural inputs.

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Acknowledgments

K. Al-Mutlaq acknowledges the partial support of this study by the King Abdulaziz City for Scientific Research (Grant No. MS-7-26). The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for suggestions and comments which improved this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Protection, College of Food and Agriculture Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Khalid Al-Mutlaq

  2. Environmental and Petroleum Geochemistry Group, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    Ahmed I. Rushdi & Bernd R. T. Simoneit

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  1. Khalid Al-Mutlaq
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  2. Ahmed I. Rushdi
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  3. Bernd R. T. Simoneit
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Correspondence to Ahmed I. Rushdi.

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Al-Mutlaq, K., Rushdi, A.I. & Simoneit, B.R.T. Organic compound tracers of fine soil and sand particles during summer in the metropolitan area of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Environ Geol 52, 559–571 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-006-0487-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-006-0487-7

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