Monitoring of persistent organic pollutants in Africa. Part 2: Design of a network to monitor the continental and intercontinental background

Abstract

A network for the study of long-term trends of the continental background in Africa and the intercontinental background of persistent organic pollutants as resulting from long-range transport of contaminants from European, South Asian, and other potential source regions, as well as by watching supposedly pristine regions, i.e. the Southern Ocean and Antarctica is designed. The results of a pilot phase sampling programme in 2008 and meteorological and climatological information from the period 1961–2007 was used to apply objective criteria for the selection of stations for the monitoring network: out the original 26 stations six have been rejected because of suggested strong local sources of POPs and three others because of local meteorological effects, which may prevent part of the time long-range transported air to reach the sampling site. Representativeness of the meteorological patterns during the pilot phase with respect to climatology was assessed by comparison of the more local airflow situation as given by climatological vs. observed wind roses and by comparison of backward trajectories with the climatological wind (NCEP/NCAR re-analyses). With minor exceptions advection to nine inspected stations was typical for present-day climate during the pilot phase, 2008. Six to nine stations would cover satisfyingly large and densely populated regions of North-eastern, West and East Africa and its neighbouring seas, the Mediterranean, Northern and Equatorial Atlantic Ocean, the Western Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean. Among the more densely populated areas Southern Cameroon, parts of the Abessinian plateau and most of the Great Lakes area would not be covered. The potential of the network is not hampered by on-going long-term changes of the advection to the selected stations, as these do hardly affect the coverage of target areas.