DISTRIBUTION OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC-HYDROCARBONS (PAHS) IN AN URBAN ROADWAY SYSTEM

The distribution of PAHs in soil, leaf litter, vegetation, soil fauna, and litter fauna in a roadside environment in Brisbane, Australia, wa s measured using gas chromatography and gas chromatography coupled wit h mass spectrometry. Sixteen common environmental PAHs were found to b e widely distributed with leaf litter exhibiting the highest concentra tions (1254 ng/g total wet wt). The carcinogenic PAHs benzo(a)anthrace ne, chrysene, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(e)pyrene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, an d indeno(1,2,3-c, d)pyrene constituted about half the total. Lipid con tent was positively correlated with total PAH content in the soil and leaf litter as was organic carbon content with leaf litter alone. The PAH content of leaf litter, soil, and vegetation declined exponentiall y with distance from the roadway, soil depth, and vegetation height, r espectively. This decline was not related to the physicochemical chara cteristics of the compounds, suggesting that dispersal occurred as par ticulates with sorbed PAHs. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.