{"id":116308,"date":"2026-09-11T15:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T13:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/publikasjoner\/global-distribution-and-budget-of-pcbs-and-hcb-in-background-surface-soils-implications-for-sources-and-environmental-processes\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T15:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T13:11:16","slug":"global-distribution-and-budget-of-pcbs-and-hcb-in-background-surface-soils-implications-for-sources-and-environmental-processes","status":"publish","type":"nva_publication","link":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/publications\/global-distribution-and-budget-of-pcbs-and-hcb-in-background-surface-soils-implications-for-sources-and-environmental-processes\/","title":{"rendered":"Global distribution and budget of PCBs and HCB in background surface soils: Implications for sources and environmental processes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This paper presents data from a survey of polychlorinated<br \/>\nbiphenyls (PCBs) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) concentrations<br \/>\nin 191 global background surface (0-5 cm) soils. Differences of up to 4 orders of magnitude were found<br \/>\nbetween sites for PCBs. The lowest and highest PCB<br \/>\nconcentrations (26 and 97 000 pg\/g dw) were found in<br \/>\nsamples from Greenland and mainland Europe (France,<br \/>\nGermany, Poland), respectively. Background soil PCB<br \/>\nconcentrations were strongly influenced by proximity to<br \/>\nsource region and soil organic matter (SOM) content. Most<br \/>\n(&gt;80%) of the estimated soil PCB burden remains in the<br \/>\n\u201cglobal source region\u201d of the Northern Hemisphere (NH)<br \/>\ntemperate latitudes (30-60\u00b0 N) or in the OM-rich soils just<br \/>\nnorth of that. %SOM correlated with PCB and HCB in the global data set, with the correlation coefficients being<br \/>\ngreater for HCB and the lighter PCBs than for heavier<br \/>\nhomologues. OM-rich soils in the NH consistently contained<br \/>\nthe highest burdens; such soils are a key global compartment<br \/>\nfor these compounds. Evidence for global fractionation<br \/>\nof PCBs was found in the subset of soils from latitudes north of the global source region but was not discerned with<br \/>\nthe global data set. The full data set was used to estimate<br \/>\nthe burden for individual congeners\/homologues in<br \/>\nsurface background soils and a global soil total PCB<br \/>\nburden of 21 000 t. The significance of the inventory is<br \/>\nbriefly discussed in relation to the latest estimates of global production and atmospheric emission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_id":"","_status":"PUBLISHED","_sync_date":"2026-09-11 14:12:24","footnotes":""},"nva_tax_category":[1099],"class_list":["post-116308","nva_publication","type-nva_publication","status-publish","hentry","nva_tax_category-scientific-journal-publication"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nva_publication\/116308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nva_publication"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/nva_publication"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nva_publication\/116308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"nva_tax_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nva_tax_category?post=116308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}