To understand the role oceans play in transporting chemicals, water at several depths was sampled near Resolute Bay in May-June 2010 to quantify the contaminant concentrations. These measurement will be used to confirm changes in water concentrations observed in the Archipelago between 1992 and 2008 for some organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and to set baseline concentrations for other compounds not previously reported in the Arctic marine environment, including perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), currently used pesticides (CUPs) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs). These measurements will include particulate and dissolved phases. To compliment and help understand contaminant processes, measurements of oceanographic data, air samples and zooplankton will also be collected.
The second part of this project is to collect coupled air and water samples on board the Amundsen focusing on Hudson Bay, the western Archipelago and transects between. Working on the Amundsen provides access to standard oceanographic and meteorological parameters. We intend to examine and quantify, where possible, the magnitude of air-water exchange in ice-free and partially ice-free surface waters along an east to west transect of the southern Canadian Archipelago. This region is selected because shallow water that drains west to east, receives freshwater runoff from icemelt and islands, is important to wildlife and builds on previous studies.
