Two
decades of atmospheric measurements of polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs) were conducted at three Arctic sites, i.e., Alert,
Canada; Zeppelin, Svalbard; and Pallas, Finland. PAH concentrations
decrease with increasing latitude in the order of Pallas > Zeppelin
> Alert. Forest fire was identified as an important contributing
source.
Three representative PAHs, phenanthrene (PHE), pyrene (PYR), and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) were selected for the assessment of their
long-term trends. Significant decline of these PAHs was not observed
contradicting the expected decline due to PAH emission reductions.
A global 3-D transport model was employed to simulate the concentrations
of these three PAHs at the three sites. The model predicted that warming
in the Arctic would cause the air concentrations of PHE and PYR to
increase in the Arctic atmosphere, while that of BaP, which tends
to be particle-bound, is less affected by temperature. The expected
decline due to the reduction of global PAH emissions is offset by
the increment of volatilization caused by warming. This work shows
that this phenomenon may affect the environmental occurrence of other
anthropogenic substances, such as more volatile flame retardants and
pesticides.
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