Chlorine – one of the most widespread elements on the Earth – is present in the environment as chloride ion or bound to organic substances. The main source of chloride ions is the oceans while organically bound chlorine (OCl) comes from various sources, including anthropogenic ones. Chlorinated organic compounds were long considered to be only industrial products; nevertheless, OCl occurs in natural ecosystems. It is important to understand both the inorganic and organic biogeochemical cycling of chlorine in order to understand processes in the forest ecosystem and dangers as a result of human activities, i.e. emission and deposition of anthropogenic chlorinated compounds as well as those from natural processes.
This scientific research project is proposed in the framework of priority area 'Environment protection', directed towards regional monitoring systems and the subsequent use of monitoring results, in connection with the International Cooperative Program on the Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests – ICP Forests - and to the recent results of research on the role of chlorine in the forest ecosystem. The project will use the existing network of 12 Level II intensive monitoring plots in the Czech Republic (see P5), which was started in 1994 for better understanding of causal relationships between forest condition and anthropogenic and natural stressors at both European and national level. Old and new soil and needle samples will be analyzed for chlorine compounds, in addition to other elements. One of the main goals will be data treatment and evaluation of obtained data from the perspective of chlorine in the forest ecosystem, followed by charting of the situation in the Czech Republic and the eventual impacts on the environment and human health.
The project will monitor relevant chlorine forms (chloride and OCl) in forest ecosystems in the Czech Republic (at present estimated there only exceptionally), and these data will then be compared with those obtained in Norway. In this way more systematic knowledge, missing up to now, will be obtained about chlorine cycling and its effects in the forest ecosystem.
Similar studies have already been carried out in Scandinavia (Sweden) especially, and also in other coastal countries. The project is required because of lack of data from the Czech Republic (and continental regions in general), for the possibility of comparison with the Norwegian situation (which has much higher deposition of chloride in the western coastal regions) and for meeting the financial demands of such a project.
AOX – adsorbable organically bound halogen
CAA – chloroacetic acids
Clorg – organically bound chlorine
DOC – dissolved organic carbon
DCA – dichloroacetic acid
dw – dry weight
OCl – organically bound chlorine
SOM – soil organic matter
TCA – trichloroacetic acid
TOX – total organically bound halogen
TX – total chlorine
VOCl – volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons
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Monitoring of chlorine in forest ecosystems Forestry and Game Management Research Institute v.v.i. |
Laboratory chlorination experimentsInstitute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic v.v.i. |
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Modeling of the dynamics of organic chlorine Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute |
Management and publicity This activity involves management, coordination of activities, financial management and administration work of the project |
