The impact of the type of cross-border transport of pollutants through wet deposition to the polar environment (with a negligible local impact of pollutants)

THE IMPACT OF THE TYPE OF CROSS-BORDER TRANSPORT OF POLLUTANTS THROUGH WET DEPOSITION TO THE POLAR ENVIRONMENT (WITH A NEGLIGIBLE LOCAL IMPACT OF POLLUTANTS)

The very roots of undertaking the studies on the pollutants' migration (including PAHs and PCBs) in the polar region is great role of the Arctics in the environment, especially in case of shaping the solar radiation balance, Earth's albedo, atmosphere and surface thermal balance, as well as shaping the weather, climate in the background of the global changes taking place. What is more, chemicals polluting the atmosphere contribute to polluting the soil and water bodies and are characterized with documented negative impact on functioning of species of both flora and fauna. Atmosphere is one of the basic elements of the environment where more and more pollutants of particulate, gaseous, aerosol origin are being released from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Of particular danger for the ecosystems are POP (Persistent Organic Pollutant) group chemicals. Pollutants in the atmosphere undergo numerous processes e.g. conversion, diffusion, chemical and photochemical reactions. Pollutants are being transferred in the direction related to the air masses circulation and winds blowing for long distances of continental or even global range. With help of the particulate precipitation (liquid or solid) pollutants are introduced into the ecosystem. Particles of precipitate flash out the pollutants present in the clouds and during their falling down also part of substances located below the cloud level. The main idea of conducting the research project of the Arctic Revdalen River catchment environment was: analyses of concentration level changes with time, identification of pollutants sources, detecting relationships between the groups of analytes. With the help of statistical methods it is possible to extract useful information on multidimensional measurement datasets on determining: pH, PAHs, PCBs and summarized parameters (TOC), in the surface water and precipitation samples collected in the region of the Revdalen catchment. The atmospheric deposition was observed as playing role in the transport of pollution into this area, as the concentration of some POP brought by precipitation greatly exceeded their concentration in surface waters. Visualization of the results obtained has proven the thesis on great transport of pollutants of trans boundary character in the polar environment and on restricted impact of local pollution. The authors would like to thank the staff of the Polish Polar Station at Hornsund for the opportunity to carry out sampling and for their assistance with this work. Thanks the National Science Centre for research funding grant no. 2013/09/N/ST10/04191.