Study on arbor leaf and ring as a potential biological indicator for atmospheric polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) distribution at e-wastes recycling sites

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are considered to be the main pollutants at e-wastes recycling sites (EWRSs). Exploring the excellent and efficient bio-indicators of atmospheric PBDEs is attracting the more and more researchers to aforementioned direction in all over the globe. Arbor leaf and air samples were collected in four EWRSs located in Taizhou city, Zhejiang province of China, and PBDEs concentrations in local atmosphere at four sampling sites generally followed a trend as follows: Mukengcun (1940.83–18,545.12 ng/g) > Yanggongao (1017.56–7740.93 ng/g) > Wenqiaozhen (420.47–3146.9 ng/g) > Changyudongtian (36.39–69.54 ng/g). The accumulated contents of absorbing the atmospheric PBDEs in eight arbor species were observed by the following trend: Magnoliagrandiflora > Ilexchinensis > Cinnamomumcamphora > Cedardeodara > Sabinachinensis > Cunninghamialanceolata > Metasequoiaglyptostroboides > Salixbabylonica. BDE47, BDE99, and BDE209 were evaluated as the main PBDEs congeners. Additionally, ∑PBDEs accumulation showed the increasing trend with leaf age and lipid content. The concentrations of PBDEs congeners in arbor leaf/ring at four sampling sites also indicated the good relationship in atmospheric gas phase, fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), and total suspended particulate. The coefficients of correlations were determined in the range of 0.957–0.999. On the other hand, the sampling height and tree age were not observed as an ideal indicator. Moreover, the longitudinal distribution of PBDEs showed a little difference, while its radial distribution seemed to be fluctuated during the growth period. We believe that our conducted research will open up the new avenues about the remediation of PBDEs contents and its derivatives from the atmosphere by using the arbor leaf and ring as a biological indicator at EWRSs.