Research article

DOI: 10.15287/afr.2022.2300

Concentrations of three rare elements in the hydrological cycle and soil of a mountainous fir forest

Panagiotis Michopoulos , Marios Kostakis, Athanassios Bourletsikas, Kostas Kaoukis, Ioannis Pasias, Theodoros Grigoratos, Nikolaos Thomaidis, Constantini Samara

Panagiotis Michopoulos
HAO DEMETER Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems Terma Alkmanos, Athens 115 28, Greece. Email: mipa@fria.gr
Marios Kostakis
Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 157 71, Greece
Athanassios Bourletsikas
H.A.O. DEMETER-Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems and Forest products Technology, Terma Alkmanos, Athens 115 28, Greece
Kostas Kaoukis
H.A.O. DEMETER-Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems and Forest products Technology, Terma Alkmanos, Athens 115 28, Greece
Ioannis Pasias
Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 157 71, Greece
Theodoros Grigoratos
Environmental Pollution Control Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki 541 24, Greece
Nikolaos Thomaidis
Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 157 71, Greece
Constantini Samara
Environmental Pollution Control Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki 541 24, Greece

Online First: July 01, 2022
Michopoulos, P., Kostakis, M., Bourletsikas, A., Kaoukis, K., Pasias, I., Grigoratos, T., Thomaidis, N., Samara, C. 2022. Concentrations of three rare elements in the hydrological cycle and soil of a mountainous fir forest. Annals of Forest Research DOI:10.15287/afr.2022.2300


In this work, the concentrations of three rare trace elements, antimony (Sb), selenium (Se), and vanadium (V) were determined in the hydrological cycle and soil of a mountain fir forest. The three elements were significantly enriched in throughfall compared to the bulk deposition. Dry deposits, either in particles or vapor form, are probably the cause of this. It was found that for the enrichment of rain with Sb and Se long range transport played a more important role compared to V. The latter had a significant relation with marine derived ions, a rather unexpected finding. Apart from dry deposition coming from long distances, all elements were enriched with continental material. The concentrations of the three elements in soils were close to the average values reported in literature. In addition, their concentrations in the streamflow water were far below the tolerable drinking water limits set up by the World Health Organization and national authorities


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