Small Arctic rivers transport legacy contaminants from thawing catchments to coastal areas in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard
Decades of atmospheric and oceanic long-range transport from lower latitudes have resulted in deposition and storage of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in Arctic regions. With increased temperatures, melting glaciers and thawing permafrost may serve as a secondary source of these stored POPs to...
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ftnilu:oai:nilu.brage.unit.no:11250/3028214 2023-07-30T04:00:43+02:00 Small Arctic rivers transport legacy contaminants from thawing catchments to coastal areas in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard Mcgovern, Maeve Borgå, Katrine Heimstad, Eldbjørg Sofie Ruus, Anders Christensen, Guttorm Evenset, Anita 2022 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3028214 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119191 eng eng Environmental Pollution (1987). 2022, 304, 119191. urn:issn:0269-7491 https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3028214 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119191 cristin:2015848 Navngivelse 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.no © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 7 304 Environmental Pollution (1987) 119191 Peer reviewed Journal article 2022 ftnilu https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119191 2023-07-08T19:54:21Z Decades of atmospheric and oceanic long-range transport from lower latitudes have resulted in deposition and storage of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in Arctic regions. With increased temperatures, melting glaciers and thawing permafrost may serve as a secondary source of these stored POPs to freshwater and marine ecosystems. Here, we present concentrations and composition of legacy POPs in glacier- and permafrost-influenced rivers and coastal waters in the high Arctic Svalbard fjord Kongsfjorden. Targeted contaminants include polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs), hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) and chlordane pesticides. Dissolved (defined as fraction filtered through 0.7 μm GF/F filter) and particulate samples were collected from rivers and near-shore fjord stations along a gradient from the heavily glaciated inner fjord to the tundra-dominated catchments at the outer fjord. There were no differences in contaminant concentration or pattern between glacier and tundra-dominated catchments, and the general contaminant pattern reflected snow melt with some evidence of pesticides released with glacial meltwater. Rivers were a small source of chlordane pesticides, DDTs and particulate HCB to the marine system and the particle-rich glacial meltwater contained higher concentrations of particle associated contaminants compared to the fjord. This study provides rare insight into the role of small Arctic rivers in transporting legacy contaminants from thawing catchments to coastal areas. Results indicate that the spring thaw is a source of contaminants to Kongsfjorden, and that expected increases in runoff on Svalbard and elsewhere in the Arctic could have implications for the contamination of Arctic coastal food-webs. publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic glacier Kongsfjord* Kongsfjorden permafrost Svalbard Tundra NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research: NILU Brage Arctic Svalbard Environmental Pollution 304 119191 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research: NILU Brage |
op_collection_id |
ftnilu |
language |
English |
description |
Decades of atmospheric and oceanic long-range transport from lower latitudes have resulted in deposition and storage of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in Arctic regions. With increased temperatures, melting glaciers and thawing permafrost may serve as a secondary source of these stored POPs to freshwater and marine ecosystems. Here, we present concentrations and composition of legacy POPs in glacier- and permafrost-influenced rivers and coastal waters in the high Arctic Svalbard fjord Kongsfjorden. Targeted contaminants include polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs), hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) and chlordane pesticides. Dissolved (defined as fraction filtered through 0.7 μm GF/F filter) and particulate samples were collected from rivers and near-shore fjord stations along a gradient from the heavily glaciated inner fjord to the tundra-dominated catchments at the outer fjord. There were no differences in contaminant concentration or pattern between glacier and tundra-dominated catchments, and the general contaminant pattern reflected snow melt with some evidence of pesticides released with glacial meltwater. Rivers were a small source of chlordane pesticides, DDTs and particulate HCB to the marine system and the particle-rich glacial meltwater contained higher concentrations of particle associated contaminants compared to the fjord. This study provides rare insight into the role of small Arctic rivers in transporting legacy contaminants from thawing catchments to coastal areas. Results indicate that the spring thaw is a source of contaminants to Kongsfjorden, and that expected increases in runoff on Svalbard and elsewhere in the Arctic could have implications for the contamination of Arctic coastal food-webs. publishedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mcgovern, Maeve Borgå, Katrine Heimstad, Eldbjørg Sofie Ruus, Anders Christensen, Guttorm Evenset, Anita |
spellingShingle |
Mcgovern, Maeve Borgå, Katrine Heimstad, Eldbjørg Sofie Ruus, Anders Christensen, Guttorm Evenset, Anita Small Arctic rivers transport legacy contaminants from thawing catchments to coastal areas in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard |
author_facet |
Mcgovern, Maeve Borgå, Katrine Heimstad, Eldbjørg Sofie Ruus, Anders Christensen, Guttorm Evenset, Anita |
author_sort |
Mcgovern, Maeve |
title |
Small Arctic rivers transport legacy contaminants from thawing catchments to coastal areas in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard |
title_short |
Small Arctic rivers transport legacy contaminants from thawing catchments to coastal areas in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard |
title_full |
Small Arctic rivers transport legacy contaminants from thawing catchments to coastal areas in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard |
title_fullStr |
Small Arctic rivers transport legacy contaminants from thawing catchments to coastal areas in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard |
title_full_unstemmed |
Small Arctic rivers transport legacy contaminants from thawing catchments to coastal areas in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard |
title_sort |
small arctic rivers transport legacy contaminants from thawing catchments to coastal areas in kongsfjorden, svalbard |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3028214 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119191 |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic glacier Kongsfjord* Kongsfjorden permafrost Svalbard Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic glacier Kongsfjord* Kongsfjorden permafrost Svalbard Tundra |
op_source |
7 304 Environmental Pollution (1987) 119191 |
op_relation |
Environmental Pollution (1987). 2022, 304, 119191. urn:issn:0269-7491 https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3028214 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119191 cristin:2015848 |
op_rights |
Navngivelse 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.no © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119191 |
container_title |
Environmental Pollution |
container_volume |
304 |
container_start_page |
119191 |
_version_ |
1772811275692146688 |