The seasonal change of PAHs in Svalbard surface snow

• Published in: Environmental Pollution
• Main Authors: Vecchiato, Marco, Barbante, Carlo, Barbaro, Elena, Burgay, François, Cairns, Warren Rl., Callegaro, Alice, Cappelletti, David, Dallo, Federico, d'Amico, Marianna, Feltracco, Matteo, Gallet, Jean-Charles, Gambaro, Andrea, Larose, Catherine, Maffezzoli, Niccolò, Mazzola, Mauro, Sartorato, Ivan, Scoto, Federico, Turetta, Clara, Vardè, Massimiliano, Xie, Zhiyong, Spolaor, Andrea
• Other Authors: Ampère, Département Bioingénierie (BioIng), Ampère (AMPERE), École Centrale de Lyon (ECL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (INSA Lyon), Université de Lyon-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-École Centrale de Lyon (ECL), Université de Lyon-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2024
• Subjects: PAHs; Snow Arctic; Winter; Retene; [CHIM]Chemical Sciences; Arctic; Ny-Ålesund; Svalbard; Ny Ålesund
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04396966; https://hal.science/hal-04396966/document; https://hal.science/hal-04396966/file/1-s2.0-S0269749123018663-main.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122864

International audience The Arctic region is threatened by contamination deriving from both long-range pollution and local human activities. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are environmental tracers of emission, transport and deposition processes. A first campaign has been conducted at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, from October 2018 to May 2019, monitoring weekly concentrations of PAHs in Arctic surface snow. The trend of the 16 high priority PAH compounds showed that long-range inputs occurred mainly in the winter, with concentrations ranging from 0.8 ng L-1 to 37 ng L-1. In contrast to this, the most abundant analyte retene, showed an opposite seasonal trend with highest values in autumn and late spring (up to 97 ng L-1), while in winter this compound remained below 3 ng L-1. This is most likely due to local contributions from outcropping coal deposits and stockpiles. Our results show a general agreement with the atmospheric signal, although significant skews can be attributed to postdepositional processes, wind erosion, melting episodes and redistribution. ☆ This paper has been recommended for acceptance by Eddy Y. Zeng.