Antarctica and NE Greenland: Marine Pollution in a Changing World

POPs in Antarctic ecosystems: is climate change affecting their temporal trends?

“…The climate crisis may have an effect on the food web structure and an impact on the availability of food resources; these alterations may shift the trophic position of organisms and consequently the POP bioaccumulation pattern. 23 Changes of Antarctic seabird diet, distribution, and population dynamics were already observed in long-term studies 24 and these modifications may lead to a shift in foraging or breeding distributions, behaviour or other adaptations, decline or extirpation of populations. 24 For instance, it was reported that contaminants are significantly related to hormonal secretion in snow petrels and parental care is affected by hormone levels: the mercury (Hg) concentrations were higher in males that neglected their egg 25 .…”

“…The effects of changes in the POP distribution in trophic webs could be not easily and promptly detected due to the geographic isolation of the Southern Ocean, where contamination events are delayed respect to the Arctic. 23…”

“…The pelagic-benthic coupling of the marine ecosystems includes fundamental processes that allow the exchange of energy and mass between the pelagic and benthic zones. 23 The pelagic domain can be affected by POP inputs through ice melting and water–air exchange and the benthic one, which receives nutrients from the upper water column, may depend on those events occurring at the sea surface. These exchanges between the pelagic and benthic ecosystems are also dependent on the seasonal sea-ice dynamics.…”

Influences of climate change on long-term time series of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in Arctic and Antarctic biota

“…1 In Antarctica, some monitoring data are available for POPs, generated by specific countries, but no systematic POP monitoring programmes exist as yet. 2 Time series have also been derived from both Arctic and Antarctic sample collections in Environmental Specimen Banks (ESB), such as the Biorepository of the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) of the USA or the ESB at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. 3–5…”