POPs budgets for a highly contaminated remote arctic lake

Atmospheric long-range transport is an important supply mechanism of POPs to the Arctic environment. Researchers have been monitoring the deposition of POPs to Bear Island over a 5 year period to quantify POPs supplies to this remote arctic region. The purpose of the investigation is to identify the cause of high concentrations measured in one of the island’s lake, Lake Ellasjøen. A lake mass-balance model for POPs, developed as part of the project, indicates that atmospheric transport is the dominant source of POPs to the lake catchment area, but not to the lake itself. The introduction of guano by seabirds visiting the lake is a larger, more efficient supply mechanism for the lake than catchment area runoff.

Financing:

Norwegian Research Council Project # 153411 (”Ellasjøen, Bear Island – a mass balance study of a highly contaminated arctic area”), and the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority.

Contact for more information

Anita Evenset or JoLynn Carroll

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