The Impact of Environmental Conditions (terrain, hydrological and meteorological conditions, degree of contamination) on the Occurrence of Bacterial Species Based on Several Years of Observation

The atmosphere is one of the basic elements of the environment into which the increasing amount of particulate matter, gases, aerosols from both natural and anthropogenic sources are released. The broad spectrum of contaminants is transferred to the remote areas including virgin territories, where there are no significant sources of pollutants emission. Environmental pollutants originating from diverse anthropogenic sources have been known to posses values capable of degrading the ecological integrity of all environmental elements. The Arctic has undergone dramatic change during the past two decades. The phenomenon of Arctic pollution (besides small local sources) arises from a combination of long-range transport of pollutants and the Arctic haze phenomenon-locking contaminated air in the area for months. The most common group of contaminants in Arctic are persistent organic pollutants (POPs), characterized by durability and resistance to degradation. The residence time of those pollutants is long enough for them to be transported thousands of kilometers by the air and finally to be deposed in the Arctic.

Contaminants originating from the atmosphere are subject to a variety of processes such as convection, diffusion, chemical and photochemical reactions. Impurities are carried in the direction of winds and air mass circulation thus they are able to remain in the atmosphere for a long period of time and may be transported over long distances. Through the sedimentation process or wet deposition of particles of the individual components, pollutants are submitted to the ecosystems.

The purpose for undertaking research on pollutants migration in the polar environment is the fact that the Arctic plays a huge role in nature, particularly in the formation of the solar radiation balance, Earth radiation, heat balance of the atmosphere and Earth surface, as well as in the development of the weather and climate during the rapid global changes. Furthermore, substances emitted to the atmosphere contribute directly (toxic impact of chemical compounds and their mixtures) and indirectly (induction processes of glaciers melting and pollutants release from the permafrost) to the soil and water contamination. The main purpose of conducted research was to study the bacterial occurrence and to determine selected xenobiotics (e.g. phenolic compounds, formaldehyde and compounds belonging to the group of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) in surface water samples collected from the Revelva catchment (West Spitsbergen, Svalbard) in summer 2013 - 2015.

Obtained results may serve as early warning signal of expected environmental changes because even low pollutants concentration levels in polar regions may suggest a significant contamination of studied area. Additionally, to understand the impact of xenobiotics presence on the microbiological processes, the total number of bacteria, size, biomass and morphological composition of bacteriocenosis were checked. To extend the knowledge on bacterial survival strategies, further metagenomic studies should be undertaken.