Date of Award:
12-2024
Document Type:
Dissertation
Degree Name:
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department:
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Committee Chair(s)
Kimberly J. Hageman
Committee
Kimberly J. Hageman
Committee
Alvan C. Hengge
Committee
Nicholas E. Dickenson
Committee
Yu-Ping Chin
Committee
Robert S. Brown
Abstract
This dissertation investigates the fate and transport of pollutants through four field-based studies in a diverse array of environments. These pollutants travel through the atmosphere and end up in places far from their original sources. In this work I explore how chemical properties of the pollutants and the environmental processes that are present change the way the pollutants travel through the environment. In the first study, pollutants from car engines were quantified in the vegetation along transects in three alpine valleys. Using these measurements, I investigated how the chemical properties of the pollutants impacted their interplay with wind systems in the valleys. Next, the atmospheric transport of pollutants from an urban area into a protected alpine wilderness was investigated. In this study, I show that the temperature changes in alpine areas impact the deposition of these pollutants into the soil. In an even more remote area, I investigated the behavior of pesticides in an Arctic lake. By measuring these pesticides in air and water, I was able to demonstrate that springtime melting releases a pulse of pesticides. Lastly, in a very different lake system, I measured pollutants in dust that is blowing off the dry lakebed of the Great Salt Lake. These pollutants were found at higher levels in the dust than in the underlying lakebed. Together, these studies demonstrate the ways that pollutant fate in the environment differs depending on their chemical properties and the environmental processes at play.
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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Perala-Dewey, Jeffrey, "Insights From Diverse Environments: Investigating the Fate and Transport of Semivolatile Organic Contaminants in Alpine, Arctic, And Arid Regions" (2024). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present. 381.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd2023/381
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