New insights on the role of sea ice in intercepting atmospheric pollutants using 129I
et al. Measurements of 129I carried out on sea ice samples collected in the central Arctic Ocean in 2007 revealed relatively high levels in the range of 100-1400×107 at L-1 that are comparable to levels measured in the surface mixed layer of the ocean at the same time. The 129I/127I ratio in sea ice...
| Published in: | Marine Pollution Bulletin |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Other Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/123113 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.10.004 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002809 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001801 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003741 |
| Summary: | et al. Measurements of 129I carried out on sea ice samples collected in the central Arctic Ocean in 2007 revealed relatively high levels in the range of 100-1400×107 at L-1 that are comparable to levels measured in the surface mixed layer of the ocean at the same time. The 129I/127I ratio in sea ice is much greater than that in the underlying water, indicating that the 129I inventory in sea ice cannot be supported by direct uptake from seawater or by iodine volatilization from proximal (nearby) oceanic regimes. Instead, it is proposed that most of the 129I inventory in the sea ice is derived from direct atmospheric transport from European nuclear fuel reprocessing plants at Sellafield and Cap La Hague. This hypothesis is supported by back trajectory simulations indicating that volume elements of air originating in the Sellafield/La Hague regions would have been present at arctic sampling stations coincident with sampling collection. This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (MEC) of Spain (POL2006–00449), the prize ICREA Academia, funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya (PM), and the fellowship AP2006–03071 (PC-M). PM was supported in part by a Gledden Visiting Fellowship awarded by the Institute of Advanced Studies at The University of Western Australia. Peer Reviewed |
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