ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-9-6479-2009 Distribution and sources of bioaccumulative air pollutants at Mezquital Valley, Mexico, as reflected by the atmospheric plant <i>Tillandsia recurvata</i> L. Zambrano García A. 1 Medina Coyotzin C. 1 Rojas Amaro A. 1 López Veneroni D. 1 Chang Martínez L. 2 Sosa Iglesias G. 1 Dirección Ejecutiva de Investigación y Posgrado, Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, México D.F., Mexico Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de los Hidalgo, Morelia, Mexico 08 09 2009 9 17 6479 6494 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/9/6479/2009/acp-9-6479-2009.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/9/6479/2009/acp-9-6479-2009.pdf

Mezquital Valley (MV), a Mexican wastewater-based agricultural and industrial region, is a "hot spot" of regulated air pollutants emissions, but the concurrent unregulated ones, like hazardous metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), remain undocumented. A biomonitoring survey with the epiphytic <i>Tillandsia recurvata</i> was conducted there to detect spatial patterns and potential sources of 20 airborne elements and 15 PAH. The natural &delta;<sup>13</sup>C and &delta;<sup>15</sup>N ratios of this plant helped in source identification. The regional mean concentration of most elements was two (Cr) to over 40 times (Ni, Pb, V) higher than reported for <i>Tillandsia</i> in other countries. Eleven elements, pyrene and chrysene had 18–214% higher mean concentration at the industrial south than at the agricultural north of MV. The total quantified PAH (mean, 572 ng g<sup>&minus;1</sup>; range, 143–2568) were composed by medium (65%, phenanthrene to chrysene), low (28%, naphthalene to fluorene) and high molecular weight compounds (7%, Benzo(<i>b</i>)fluoranthene to indeno(1,2,3-<i>cd</i>)pyrene). The &delta;<sup>13</sup>C (mean, &minus;14.6&permil;; range, &minus;15.7&permil; to &minus;13.7&permil;) was consistently lower than &minus;15&permil; near the major petroleum combustion sources. The &delta;<sup>15</sup>N (mean, &minus;3.0&permil;; range, &minus;9.9&permil; to 3.3&permil;) varied from positive at agriculture/industrial areas to negative at rural sites. Factor analysis provided a five-factor solution for 74% of the data variance: 1) crustal rocks, 39.5% (Al, Ba, Cu, Fe, Sr, Ti); 2) soils, 11.3%, contrasting contributions from natural (Mg, Mn, Zn) and saline agriculture soils (Na); 3) cement production and fossil fuel combustion, 9.8% (Ca, Ni, V, chrysene, pyrene); 4) probable agricultural biomass burning, 8.1% (K and benzo(<i>g,h,i</i>)perylene), and 5) agriculture with wastewater, 5.2% (&delta;<sup>15</sup>N and P). These results indicated high deposition of bioaccumulative air pollutants at MV, especially at the industrial area. Since <i>T. recurvata</i> reflected the regional differences in exposition, it is recommended as a biomonitor for comparisons within and among countries where it is distributed: southern USA to Argentina.

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