Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons not declining in Arctic air despite global emission reduction

Yu, Yong and Katsoyiannis, Athanasios and Bohlin Nizzetto, Pernilla and Brorström-Lundén, Eva and Ma, Jianmin and Zhao, Yuan and Wu, Zhiyong and Tych, Wlodzimierz and Mindham, David and Sverko, Ed and Barresi, Enzo and Dryfhout-Clark, Helena and Fellin, Phil and Hung, Hayley (2019) Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons not declining in Arctic air despite global emission reduction. Environmental Science and Technology, 53 (5). 2375–2382. ISSN 0013-936X

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Abstract

Two decades of atmospheric measurements of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were conducted at three Arctic sites, i.e., Alert, Canada; Zeppelin, Svalbard; and Pallas, Finland. PAH concentrations decrease with increasing latitude in the order of Pallas>Zeppelin>Alert. Forest fire was identified as an important contributing source. Three representative PAHs, phenanthrene (PHE), pyrene (PYR), and benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) were selected for the assessment of their long-term trends. Significant decline of these PAHs was not observed contradicting the expected decline due to PAH emission reductions. A global 3-D transport model was employed to simulate the concentrations of these three PAHs at the three sites. The model predicted that warming in the Arctic would cause the air concentrations of PHE and PYR to increase in the Arctic atmosphere, while that of BaP, which tends to be particle-bound, is less affected by temperature. The expected decline due to the reduction of global PAH emissions is offset by the increment of volatilization caused by warming. This work shows that this phenomenon may affect the environmental occurrence of other anthropogenic substances, such as, the more volatile flame retardants and pesticides.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Environmental Science and Technology
Additional Information:
This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Environmental Science and Technology, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.8b05353
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2300/2304
Subjects:
?? environmental chemistrygeneral chemistrychemistry(all) ??
ID Code:
131253
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
12 Feb 2019 14:35
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
19 Oct 2024 00:00