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Persistent Organic Pollutants in Barents Sea Bottom Sediments

  • HYDROCHEMISTRY, HYDROBIOLOGY, ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS
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Abstract

Long-term observation data (2003–2018) of 625 stations were analyzed to determine the distribution of organochlorine pesticides (DDT, hexachlorobenzene, and hexachlorocyclohexane) and polychlorbiphenyls in bottom sediments of the Barents Sea. The concentrations of pollutants were analyzed for the sea as a whole and separately for six chosen regions: Spitsbergen shelf, Medvezhinskii trough, Northeastern Region, Southeastern Region (the Pechora Sea), the Central Basin, and Kola Bay region. The data were processed with the use of methods of mathematical statistics and GIS-analysis in the ArcView environment (ESRI). Maps of the concentration distributions of the examined pollutants are given. The most polluted were sediments in the central depression and Kola Bay area (including Western Murman), and the least polluted were those in the Southeastern region. The central depression was found to be the main region of pollution deposition in the Barents Sea. A considerable portion of pesticides and PCBs is likely to be the accumulated old pollution that enters the sea because of melting of firn and perennial ice in the Arctic.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author is grateful to colleagues from the Laboratory of Applied Ecology and Toxicology, Polar Branch, N.M. Knipovich Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, A.Yu. Zhilin, N.F. Plotitsyna, and T.A. Zimoveiskova for the invaluable help in the treatment of samples and advices in the discussion of the results of this study.

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  1. Polar Branch, Knipovich Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, 183038, Murmansk, Russia

    M. A. Novikov

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Correspondence to M. A. Novikov.

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Translated by G. Krichevets

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Novikov, M.A. Persistent Organic Pollutants in Barents Sea Bottom Sediments. Water Resour 48, 439–448 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0097807821030106

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