Atmospheric Long-range Transport and Deposition of Emerging Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Arctic

There are a number of major physical pathways (air, rivers and ocean currents) that transport organic contaminants to the Arctic. In the Eurasian Arctic the dominance of the Siberian drainage basin for river inflow, and the opportunity for northward flowing air masses to collect contaminants from European and Russian centres of industry, is quite significant. In addition, the northward flowing thermohaline circulation is likely to carry organic contaminants in surface waters to higher latitudes. Organic pollutants are subject to a variety of processes in the Arctic environment such as degradation, settling, exchange with the atmosphere, advective transport, water-sediment recycling, bioaccumulation, etc. These processes affect the fate of organic pollutants in the Arctic ecosystem. There are now strong evidence for the long-range transport of classic persistent organic pollutants such as PCBs and HCHs from Asia, European and North American continents into the Arctic, while the occurrence and transport pathways of emerging organic pollutants are still not well understood. Additionally climate change may significantly influence the transport and environment fate of organic pollutants in the Arctic. The project is focused on studies of the distribution and atmospheric transport of emerging organic pollutants such as perfluorinated organic compounds (PFCs) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in the Arctic. Initial studies have been carried out at China Arctic Huanghe Station on Svalbard (July–August 2009) and in east Greenland Sea during German Polarstern cruise ARK-XXIV/3 (5.08–25.09.2009). PFCs and BFRs have been determined in air, water and snow samples collected during the arctic cruise and in the sediment samples from the Arctic. These measurements will improve understanding of the long-range transport and the fate of the emerging persistent organic pollutants in arctic ecosystem.