The waters of the Arctic Ocean are known to be contaminated by various persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The Fram Strait, which represents the only deep water passage to the Arctic Ocean, represents an unquantified gateway for POPs fluxes into and out of the Arctic. The Canadian Archipelago is also known as a major gateway out of the Arctic Ocean. 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 occurrence, composition, vertical profiles and mass fluxes of dissolved polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs). In the Canadian Archipelago, atmospheric transport seems mostly responsible for the presence of POPs in the surface Arctic Ocean, air-water fugacity gradients implied net volatilization to the atmosphere during the summer/sampling time for most POPs. In the Fram Strait, higher concentrations of ΣPCBs (1.3-3.6 pg L<sup>-1</sup>), and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (ΣDDTs, 5.2-9.1 pg L<sup>-1</sup>) were observed in the deep water masses (below 1000 m), similar to nutrient-like vertical profiles. Net southward transport of hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and hexachlorocyclohexanes (ΣHCHs) were 0.70 and 14 tons/year, while net northward transport of ΣPCBs was 0.16 tons/year through the deep-water passage Fram Strait. The estimated fluxes results for PCBs are comparable to the output of a novel PCB simulation in a global ocean circulation model (MITgcm).

Using passive samplers to determine concentrations and water mass transport of legacy POPs in the Arctic Ocean

256th National Meeting (2018)

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