Oceans might become the most important and final sink for truly persistent and polar compounds. Many of the world's oceans have been surveyed on the surface for PFCs, but little is known about these compounds at depth. Thus we collected spatially distributed depth profiles for perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) across the Atlantic Ocean in 2013. Different water masses were targeted, often including the 3 water masses of Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW), North American Deep Water (NADW), and Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). Samples were analyzed for PFCs using UPLC-MS/MS. Results suggest that, at least in the South Atlantic Ocean, surface waters do not carry greatest concentrations of PFCs any longer. Often, maximum concentrations were detected in deeper water layers. Yet the deep water was still free of PFCs, suggesting that it was not ocean transport that carried PFCs, but attachment to sinking particles. In a separate study, passive samplers were deployed in the Arctic Ocean to measure the vertical profiles of selected polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs). Results imply that these hydrophobic compounds typically display greater concentrations at the surface, though hexachlorobenzene was detected down to 2,000 m.

Transport of PBTs across the oceans

248th National Meeting (2014)

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