Persistent organic pollutants in ocean sediments from the North Pacific to the Arctic Ocean

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
• Main Authors: Ma, Yuxin, Halsall, Crispin, Crosse, John, Graf, Carola, Cai, Minghong, He, Jianfeng, Gao, Guoping, Jones, Kevin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Bering Sea; canada basin; Central Arctic; Chukchi
• Online Access: https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/73569/; https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/73569/1/Ma_et_al_2015_Journal_of_Geophysical_Research_Oceans.pdf

Concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OC pesticides), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are reported in surficial sediments sampled along cruise transects from the Bering Sea to the central Arctic Ocean. OCs and PCBs all had significantly higher concentrations in the relatively shallow water (<500 m depth) of the Bering-Chukchi shelf areas (e.g., ΣPCB 286 ± 265 pg g−1 dw) compared to the deeper water regions (>500 m) of the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean (e.g., Canada Basin ΣPCB 149 ± 102 pg g−1 dw). Concentrations were similar to, or slightly lower than, studies from the 1990s, indicating a lack of a declining trend. PBDEs (excluding BDE-209) displayed very low concentrations (e.g., range of median values, 3.5–6.6 pg/g dw). In the shelf areas, the sediments comprised similar proportions of silt and clay, whereas the deep basin sediments were dominated by clay, with a lower total organic carbon (TOC) content. While significant positive correlations were observed between persistent organic pollutant (POP) concentrations and TOC (Pearson correlation, r = 0.66–0.75, p <0.05), the lack of strong correlations, combined with differing chemical profiles between the sediments and technical formulations (and/or marine surface waters), indicate substantial chemical processing during transfer to the benthic environment. Marked differences in sedimentation rates between the shallow and deeper water regions are apparent (the ∼5 cm-depth grab samples collected here representing ∼100 years of accumulation for the shelf sediments and ∼1000 years for the deeper ocean regions), which may bias any comparisons. Nonetheless, the sediments of the shallower coastal arctic seas appear to serve as significant repositories for POPs deposited from surface waters.