Аннотация:Svalbard is a unique area of International Arctic that started its initial development as a coal mining archipelago but now increasingly becoming a field of global research, baseline environmental monitoring and the region-specific recreation. One of the reasons for the parallel trend to renewable energy is the long-term multi-chemical contamination originated from local operations with bituminous coal including its extraction, transportation and combustion.
Numerous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are among the coal's native compounds the load of which on Svalbard's landscapes increased significantly with opening the mines some 100 years ago. In addition, the local coal-firing power plants produced huge amounts of heavier and much more toxic PAH derivatives associated now with unburnt coal-bound hydrocarbons in air/snow particulates, fallouts, soil matrix and bottom sediments.
This three years long study was focused on identifying both natural and technogenic PAH associations in soils and snow cover sampled within a variety of landscapes with location of emission sources and natural factors of contaminants' distribution having been taken into account.
In two expeditions (Spring 2013 and 2014), we took probes for geochemical studies of the snow covers, and in three additional expeditions (summer-autumn 2013, 2014, 2015), samples for soil surveys were gathered.
The presence of different substances including polycyclic hydrocarbons (as 16 individual structures listed by US EPA as those of priority assessment) was measured in accordance with the ISO 12884:2000 standard using a liquid chromatograph (LC-20 ominence, Shimadzu) coupled to a fluorometric detector (RF-20A).
The results indicate that a significant level of contribution arose from local sources. The highest levels of PAHs were found near operating coal mines, coal terminal areas and coal-fired power plants. Two main PAH generations were discovered. The first is related to coal particulates while the second stems from combustion products that originated from local and, to a far lesser degree, from remote sources.
The results also helped determining the spatial distribution of contamination. In addition, the assessment of recipients improved our understanding of geochemical features in Arctic landscapes under industrial pressure.