PARENT SESSION

1G - Long-range transport of pollutants (chemicals)
Hall 13
10:45 AM - 12:30 PM, Wednesday, 30 April 2003
Chair: Jones, K.C.¹, ¹

(WE13/6) New insights in the airborne transport of persistent pollutants into the European Arctic. Atmospheric persistent organic contaminants in Bjoernoeya air.

Kallenborn, Roland ¹, Schlabach, Martin¹, Christensen, Guttorm², Benedictow, Anna³, ¹ Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Kjeller and Tromsų, Akershus, Norway² Akvaplan-niva, Tromsų, Troms, Norway³ The Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Oslo, Oslo, Norway

ABSTRACT- A long-term monitoring study on the transport and fate of persistent, semi-volatile Bjoernoeya(Bear Island: 74o N, 19 o E) has been performed in the frame of a nationally funded research project. Since 2000, a continuous year-around survey on airborne polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), selected brominated flame retardants (e.g., polybrominated diphenyl ethers), chlorinated pesticides (e.g., hexachlorocyclohexanes, chlordanes) as well as their transformation products was conducted using standard high-volume air sampling devices (weekly samples > 1000 m3) and trace-analytical quantification with capillary gas chromatography coupled to a high resolution mass spectrometer. Relatively high levels of persistent contaminants have been found (June 2001: Sum PCB = 35 pg/m3). In the Bjoernoeya atmospheric samples, collected 2000-2001, concentration levels of a total of 107 PCB congeners have been investigated. Characteristic pattern differences for PCBs, polybrominated diphenyl ethers and chloropesticides were found indicating site-specific distribution patterns. Thus, elevated contribution of the gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) to the atmospheric HCH burden (sum alpha- and gamma-HCH) in Bjoernoeya air supports the hypothesis, that local biological sources (e.g., bird guano and droppings) influence the airborne semi-volatile contamination at Bjoernoeya. However, several potential long-range transport events have been identified and elucidated by using back trajectory calculations. The obtained results have also been compared with the monitoring program performed in parallel at the Zeppelin research station, Ny-Aalesund (Svalbard, Norway). Methods and assessments used to discriminate between local sources and long-range transport events will be introduced and discussed in the presentation.

Key words: European Arctic, Bjoernoeya, Atmospheric long-range transport, semi-volatile contaminants