Effects of air pollution on the chemistry of surface waxes of scots pine

Abstract

Surface waxes from Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) trees from the same provenance, but growing at a polluted and an unpolluted site, were sampled for each year class of needles at least twice during the year.There was no change in the amount of wax per unit area over the lifetime of the needles, but less wax was obtained from trees at the polluted site.Quantitative thin-layer chromatography of the wax gave several components which decreased in amount with time. They were identified as long-chain alcohols and ketones, and comprised only a small proportion of the total wax. The rate of change was greater in polluted air than in clean air, and there was a strong correlation with measured contact angles for water droplets. The degradation in structure observed by scanning electron microscopy may be associated with particular chemical components of the surface wax.