Levels of dioxins and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls in seawater from the Hornsund fjord (SW Svalbard)

Pouch, Anna; Zaborska, Agata; Pazdro, Ksenia

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111917

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Therefore, we intend to determine here how much of this uncertainty is easily explained by the heterogeneity of snow as a sampled medium, instead of the model efficiency issues, and therefore determine the limitations in such comparisons as a ground‐truthing process. Another example of interest in the spatial variability of the concentrations of organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) connects to the possibility of their emission to the environment from secondary sources (e.g., the melting glaciers or the seawater uncovered by the melting sea ice), which may be induced from spatial concentration patterns (Ma et al., 2016; Pawlak et al., 2021; Pouch et al., 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local variability in snow concentrations of chlorinated persistent organic pollutants as a source of large uncertainty in interpreting spatial patterns at all scales

et al. 2022

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Single point sampling, a widespread practice in snow studies in remote areas, due to logistical constraints, can present an unquantified error to the final study results. The low concentrations of studied chemicals, such as chlorinated persistent organic pollutants, contribute to the uncertainty. We conducted a field experiment in the Arctic to estimate the error stemming from differences in the composition of snow at short distances (1-3 m), including 13 single organochlorine pesticides and 6 polychlorinated biphenyls, thus providing the most detailed published dataset on the subject. We contrasted this variability with the uncertainty at larger spatial scales, both within one valley (regional scale, this study) and as described in the worldwide literature.The range of values for the coefficient of variation for local samples was 20-58% for single organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and 33-54% for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and for regional samples it was 21-69% for OCPs and 65-93% for PCBs. We suggest that, to observe the actual changes in the concentration of selected compounds in snow, they should vary at the level of 40-60%, depending on the compound in question. The uncertainty margin remains much smaller than the current discrepancy between observation data and atmospheric deposition models considering snow, deeming field data on snow concentrations a useful ground-truthing dataset. However, field observations on spatial differences at all scales need to be interpreted with caution, and the dataset provided here on the local sampling uncertainty helps define the margins of such interpretations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%