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Olive tree, Olea europaea L., leaves as a bioindicator of atmospheric PCB contamination

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Abstract

Olive tree leaf samples were collected to investigate their possible use for biomonitoring of lipophilic toxic substances. The samples were analyzed for 28 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) congeners. Twelve congeners were detected in the samples. PCB-60, 77, 81, 89, 105, 114, and 153 were the most frequently detected congeners ranging from 32 % for PCB-52 to 97 % for PCB-81. Σ12PCBs concentration varied from below detection limit to 248 ng/g wet weight in the sampling area, while the mean congener concentrations ranged from 0.06 ng/g (PCB-128 + 167) to 64.2 ng/g wet weight (PCB-60). Constructed concentration maps showed that olive tree leaves can be employed for the estimation of spatial distrubution of these congeners.

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Acknowledgments

Olive leaves were collected in a research project supported by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (grant no. 107O170).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Research Center, Izmir Institute of Technology, Gulbahce, Urla, 35430, Izmir, Turkey

    Sait C. Sofuoglu & Aysun Sofuoglu

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Izmir Institute of Technology, Gulbahce, Urla, 35430, Izmir, Turkey

    Burak Yayla & Pınar Kavcar

  3. Faculty of Agriculture, Adnan Menderes University, Aydin, Turkey

    Duygu Ates & Cafer Turgut

Authors
  1. Sait C. Sofuoglu
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  2. Burak Yayla
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  3. Pınar Kavcar
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  4. Duygu Ates
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  5. Cafer Turgut
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  6. Aysun Sofuoglu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aysun Sofuoglu.

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Responsible editor: Leif Kronberg

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Sofuoglu, S.C., Yayla, B., Kavcar, P. et al. Olive tree, Olea europaea L., leaves as a bioindicator of atmospheric PCB contamination. Environ Sci Pollut Res 20, 6178–6183 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-1640-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-1640-y

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