Publication Date:
2023-01-30
Description:
The Arctic Ocean is known to be contaminated by various persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
The Fram Strait, the only deepwater passage to the Arctic Ocean (from the Atlantic Ocean), represents an
unquantified gateway for POPs fluxes into and out of the Arctic. Polyethylene passive samplers were
deployed in vertical profiles in the Fram Strait and in air and surface water in the Canadian Archipelago to
determine the concentrations, profiles, and mass fluxes of dissolved polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and
organochlorine pesticides. In the Fram Strait, higher concentrations of ΣPCBs (1.3–3.6 pg/L) and
dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (ΣDDTs, 5.2–9.1 pg/L) were observed in the deepwater masses (below
1,000 m), similar to nutrient-like vertical profiles. There was net southward transport of hexachlorobenzene
and hexachlorocyclohexanes (ΣHCHs) of 0.70 and 14 Mg/year but a net northward transport of ΣPCBs at
0.16 Mg/year through the Fram Strait.
Repository Name:
EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
Type:
Article
,
isiRev
Format:
application/pdf
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