Spatial and temporal trends of polychlorinated naphthalenes in the Arctic atmosphere at Ny-Ålesund and London Island, Svalbard

Tariku Bekele Gebru; Yingming Li; Cheng Dong; Yuxin Yang; Ruiqiang Yang; Zhiguo Pei; Qinghua Zhang; Guibin Jiang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163023

Spatial and temporal trends of polychlorinated naphthalenes in the Arctic atmosphere at Ny-Ålesund and London Island, Svalbard

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jun 20:878:163023. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163023. Epub 2023 Mar 28.

Authors

Tariku Bekele Gebru¹, Yingming Li², Cheng Dong³, Yuxin Yang⁴, Ruiqiang Yang⁵, Zhiguo Pei³, Qinghua Zhang⁶, Guibin Jiang⁶

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Department of Chemistry, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 231, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
² State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: ymli@rcees.ac.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; School of Environment, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, UCAS, Hangzhou 310024, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; School of Environment, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, UCAS, Hangzhou 310024, China; Institute of Environment and Health, Jianghan University, Wuhan 430056, China.

PMID: 36990243
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163023

Abstract

Polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) are ubiquitous atmospheric pollutants that can even be found in the most remote region of the Arctic. However, temporal trend analysis and reports on mono- to octa-CN in the Arctic air are still scarce. In the present study, 8 years of atmospheric monitoring data of PCNs on Svalbard was investigated using XAD-2 resin passive air samplers (PASs) from 2011-2019. The concentrations of ∑₇₅ PCNs in the Arctic air ranged from 4.56 to 85.2 pg/m³, with a mean of 23.5 pg/m³. The mono-CNs and di-CNs were the dominant homologue groups accounting for 80 % of the total concentrations. The most abundant congeners were PCN-1, PCN-2, PCN-24/14, PCN-5/7, and PCN-3, respectively. A declining time trend of PCN concentration was observed from 2013 to 2019. The reduction in PCN concentrations is likely due to declining global emissions and banned production. However, no significant spatial difference was observed among the sampling sites. The total PCN toxic equivalency (TEQ) concentrations in the Arctic atmosphere ranged from 0.043 to 1.93 fg TEQ/m³ (mean 0.41 fg TEQ/m³). The fraction of combustion-related congeners to ∑PCNs (tri- to octa-CN) analysis results indicated that the sources of PCNs in the Arctic air were contributed mainly from reemissions of historical Halowax mixtures and combustion-related sources. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first research to report all 75 PCN congeners and homologue groups in Arctic air. Therefore, this study provides data on recent temporal trend analysis as well as all the 75 PCN congeners in the Arctic atmosphere.

Keywords: Air; Arctic; Long-range atmospheric transport (LRAT); PCNs; XAD-2 resin.