Organic Compounds and Suspended Particulate Matter in Snow of High Latitude Areas (Arctic and Antarctic)

Inna A Nemirovskaya,Vladimir P Shevchenko

doi:10.3390/atmos11090928

Abstract

Long-term studies of suspended particulate matter (SPM) and organic compounds (OCs)—Corg, lipids, hydrocarbons (aliphatic—AHCs and polycyclic aromatic—PAHs), and chlorophyll a in the snow cover of the Arctic (Franz Victoria Trough, Mendeleev Rise, White Sea) and Antarctica (in the coastal waters on fast ice and on the mainland near Russian stations) were generalized. It was shown that in the Arctic, the influence of continental air masses leads to an increase in OCs in snow. Therefore, despite the fact that the Franz Victoria Trough and the Mendeleev Rise are at the same latitude (82° N), the OCs content in the snow in the region of the Mendeleev Rise was lower for aliphatic hydrocarbons 5 and 14–18 μg/L. In the White Sea, the AHC content in the snow and the upper layers of the ice in the mouth of the Severnaya Dvina River and in the Kandalaksha Bay was higher than that in the lower layers of the ice and sharply decreased with distance from the emission sources. As a result, the snow was supplied mainly by pyrogenic PAHs. In the Antarctica, the lowest OCs levels in atmosphere were found in areas where coastal hills are covered with snow. The maximum SPM and AHCs concentration was found in the sludge (SPM—to 4.37 mg/L, AHC—to 33 μg/L). An increase in the concentration of OCs and SPM in snow sampled on the continent took place in the areas of stations and oases (St. Novolazarevskaya) where the predominance of mineral particles in the SPM was registered. In the area of the operating stations, mainly low molecular weight PAHs with the dominance of petroleum PAHs were found in the SPM of snow and in mosses.

Highlights

Snow and ice make a significant contribution to the suspended matter cycle including anthropogenic particles in high-latitude water areas in comparison with other climatic zones [1].Snow accumulates solid particles and solutes from the atmosphere
The main goals of this article are to generalize the results of long-term studies of suspended particulate matter (SPM) and organic compounds (OCs)—organic carbon (Corg ), lipids, hydrocarbons, and chlorophyll a in the snow cover of the Arctic and Antarctica
The Arctic is becoming a global trap for aerosol matter that passes into water and bottom sediments in depocenters—on the border of ice and temperate zones [1,35]

Summary

Introduction

Snow and ice make a significant contribution to the suspended matter cycle including anthropogenic particles in high-latitude water areas in comparison with other climatic zones [1].Snow accumulates solid particles and solutes from the atmosphere. Snow and ice make a significant contribution to the suspended matter cycle including anthropogenic particles in high-latitude water areas in comparison with other climatic zones [1]. Snow can be considered as a pump, taking both natural and anthropogenic organic and inorganic components from the atmosphere. In snow in the northern part of the Barents Sea near Franz Joseph Land (Franz Victoria Trough), the average AHC concentration in dissolved and suspended forms (for AHCs, respectively, 5 and 6 μg/L and for PAHs, 2 and 3 ng/L, Table 1) is lower than in under-ice water. The composition of alkanes and PAHs in snow samples is rather uniform, as evidenced by the ratios of molecular markers (Table 1). Among the alkanes of snow, high-molecular compounds prevailed, with an almost equal ratio of even and odd homologs (CPI23-35 = 1.1–1.2). Pericondensed pyrogenic PAHs pyrene and benzo (a) pyrene were minor components

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