Occurrence of Perfluoroalkyl Compounds in Surface Waters from the North Pacific to the Arctic Ocean

Abstract

Perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs) were determined in 22 surface water samples (39-76°N) and three sea ice core and snow samples (77-87°N) collected from North Pacific to the Arctic Ocean during the fourth Chinese Arctic Expedition in 2010. Geographically, the average concentration of ∑PFC in surface water samples were 560 ± 170 pg L(-1) for the Northwest Pacific Ocean, 500 ± 170 pg L(-1) for the Arctic Ocean, and 340 ± 130 pg L(-1) for the Bering Sea, respectively. The perfluoroalkyl carboxylates (PFCAs) were the dominant PFC class in the water samples, however, the spatial pattern of PFCs varied. The C(5), C(7) and C(8) PFCAs (i.e., perfluoropentanoate (PFPA), perfluoroheptanoate (PFHpA), and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA)) were the dominant PFCs in the Northwest Pacific Ocean while in the Bering Sea the PFPA dominated. The changing in the pattern and concentrations in Pacific Ocean indicate that the PFCs in surface water were influenced by sources from the East-Asian (such as Japan and China) and North American coast, and dilution effect during their transport to the Arctic. The presence of PFCs in the snow and ice core samples indicates an atmospheric deposition of PFCs in the Arctic. The elevated PFC concentration in the Arctic Ocean shows that the ice melting had an impact on the PFC levels and distribution. In addition, the C(4) and C(5) PFCAs (i.e., perfluorobutanoate (PFBA), PFPA) became the dominant PFCs in the Arctic Ocean indicating that PFBA is a marker for sea ice melting as the source of exposure.

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the lower atmosphere and surface waters of the Chinese Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and Yangtze River estuary

“…Details on the water sampling procedures can be found elsewhere (Cai et al, 2012c). Briefly, a glass fiber filter (GFF, Ø47 mm, pore size: 1.2 μm) was used for filtration.…”

Continuous Non-Marine Inputs of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances to the High Arctic: A Multi-Decadal Temporal Record

“…) fraction between PFAAs on the Devon Ice Cap 10 and ocean levels in the Canadian Artic Archipelago (Benskin et al, 2012b), Arctic Ocean (Benskin et al, 2012b;Cai et al, 2012a), North Atlantic Ocean (Zhao et al, 2012), and North Pacific Ocean (Cai et al, 2012a) (Calvert et al, 2008):…”

Spatial distribution of perfluoroalkyl acids in surface sediments of the German Bight, North Sea

“…Previous studies of PFAAs have raised considerable concern regarding their global distribution (Ahrens et al, 2009a;Butt et al, 2010;Cai et al, 2012;Kannan, 2011;Taniyasu et al, 2013;Yamashita et al, 2005), bioaccumulation and/or biotransformation in organisms and marine mammals, environmental degradation and potential toxicity (Giesy et al, 2010;Naile et al, 2010). In recent years, PFAAs have been reported in different environmental compartments such as air (Dreyer et al, 2009;Li et al, 2011), water (Ahrens, 2011;Benskin et al, 2012), sediment (Bao et al, 2010;Higgins et al, 2005;Lam et al, 2014;Pan et al, 2014;Theobald et al, 2012;Zhao et al, 2013), and in biota (Giesy and Kannan, 2001;Houde et al, 2006;Kannan et al, 2006).…”