| Summary:
Knowledge of pollutants in
the environment - their behaviour and distribution together with
supporting information on ocean, ice and air transportation is vital
to developing sound management plans for monitoring of the Arctic. The
Pollution section was tasked with gathering information that would
support the development of improved contaminant transport model
capabilities. Four resource guides
provide descriptions of the new information acquired within
this programme. The documents contain information on the following
topics: (1) a selection of key contaminants for modeling contaminant
transport and spreading in Arctic seaways, (2) historical data on
contaminant concentrations in ice, snow and water for some key areas
of the Russian arctic, (3) improved mathematical formulations for
simulating geochemical processes in transport models, including (i)
uptake, redistribution and release of contaminants by sea ice, (ii)
chemical exchange processes between sea-ice and atmosphere, (iii)
sediment-seawater interactions and (iv) chemical exchange reactions at
the sea-floor. The fourth and final report contains information on
discharge scenarios for model validation and testing including
potential acute sources and chronic discharges/emissions/ atmospheric
fallout. The information contained in the four reports has supported
the development of improved models for the simulation of contaminant
transport within the unique environmental setting of the Arctic.
Scientific results
The objective
of the Pollution Section of the Transport Programme was to gather and
synthesize information that would support the development of better
models to predict the spread of contaminans in Arctic Seas. This
objective has been fully realized. The results of the Pollution
Section are described in detail in a series of 4 reports; one for each
subsection of the project.
The
following variations in the scope of the project were encountered
throughout the programme. In Section I- Selection of Key Contaminants,
there was an overall low level of response to the questionnaires. Despite the low return rate, enough information was gathered
with which to make recommendations in all contaminant categories
except in the case of current use pesticides. This outcome was
discussed with the programme manager and it was agreed that the final
report should include a series of recommendations for improving the
process in the future.
In
Section II- Data Synthesis & Analysis, our intention was to work
with two Russian organizations as part of our data gathering
activities. Both the Russian Centre for Monitoring of the Arctic and
SPA Typhoon had originally agreed to participate in this programme.
However, after considerable effort was invested in negotiations, SPA
Typhoon was unexpectedly unable to commit the necessary time and
resources to this project. Because of the loss of time and resources
during the negotiation phase for the project, no other alternative
Russian collaborator was pursued.
Overall
the project maintained close adherence to the budgets established at
the start of the programme. Two exceptions are noted. In Section I-
Selection of Key Contaminants, the costs were in excess of the budget
by 50 KNOK. This can be attributed to the difficulties encountered in
conducting the contaminant survey by mail rather than as a workshop as
was initially proposed during the programme planning. In Section IV-
Scenarios, the costs were under budget by 50 KNOK. This can be
attributed to the fact that at this time, scenarios of POPs are not
available as input to oceanographic models. So the level of effort
required to assemble a list of available resources was reduced from
what was originally planned for the project. The reasons for this
situation are discussed in detail in the final report for this work.
Including
these minor changes to the overall budget, at the present time, the
Contaminant Section of the Transport Programme remains on target with
the original budget.
Relevance
for monitoring
The
results of the Contaminants Section of the Transport programme are
relevant to monitoring of the Arctic in the following ways:
1.
Section I: The most important subcompartments (air,
sediment,water, biota) for different environmental contaminants have
been identified. These results will help to streamline monitoring
programmes to address the most important components of the environment
with respect to each individual contaminant.
2.
Section II: The data retrieved for the Russian
Arctic provide baseline data for comparison with future years so that
changes in contamination levels will be more easily detected in the
future.
3.
Section III: The incorporation of improved numerical
procedures into transport models will lead to more realistic
assessments of the transport pathways and impacts resulting from
contaminants detected in the environment through monitoring programmes.
4.
Section IV: The ability to test and validate
transport models using the resources compiled in this section of the
project will lead to better knowledge of potential contamination ’hotspots.’
Knowledge of these areas will be essential when planning long-term
monitoring activities.
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