Organic Compounds and Suspended Particulate Matter in Snow of High Latitude Areas (Arctic and Antarctic)

Abstract

Long-term studies of suspended particulate matter (SPM) and organic compounds (OCs)—Corg, lipids, hydrocarbons (aliphatic—AHCs and polycyclic aromatic—PAHs), and chlorophyll a in the snow cover of the Arctic (Franz Victoria Trough, Mendeleev Rise, White Sea) and Antarctica (in the coastal waters on fast ice and on the mainland near Russian stations) were generalized. It was shown that in the Arctic, the influence of continental air masses leads to an increase in OCs in snow. Therefore, despite the fact that the Franz Victoria Trough and the Mendeleev Rise are at the same latitude (82° N), the OCs content in the snow in the region of the Mendeleev Rise was lower for aliphatic hydrocarbons 5 and 14–18 μg/L. In the White Sea, the AHC content in the snow and the upper layers of the ice in the mouth of the Severnaya Dvina River and in the Kandalaksha Bay was higher than that in the lower layers of the ice and sharply decreased with distance from the emission sources. As a result, the snow was supplied mainly by pyrogenic PAHs. In the Antarctica, the lowest OCs levels in atmosphere were found in areas where coastal hills are covered with snow. The maximum SPM and AHCs concentration was found in the sludge (SPM—to 4.37 mg/L, AHC—to 33 μg/L). An increase in the concentration of OCs and SPM in snow sampled on the continent took place in the areas of stations and oases (St. Novolazarevskaya) where the predominance of mineral particles in the SPM was registered. In the area of the operating stations, mainly low molecular weight PAHs with the dominance of petroleum PAHs were found in the SPM of snow and in mosses.

Interaction of Air Pollution with Snow and Seasonality Effects

“…Field observation, laboratory-experimental, and modeling studies are included, along with environmental monitoring and source apportionment research of local, regional, or global relevance. The fieldwork covered in the articles was conducted in various types of locations: urban sites (e.g., the cities of Chengdu, Gucheng [1], Helsinki [2], Montreal [3], and Moscow [4]); small cities and rural areas (e.g., Yulin, Huimin, and Zhengzhou [1], Tien Shan [5], Valday [6], and "36 sites on a 2800 km submeridional profile from the city of Barnaul to Salekhard" [7]); industrial [6]; remote (e.g., the Arctic, Antarctic [8], and Tibetan Plateau [9]); and other locations (e.g., along highways [10] and in the mountains [11]).…”

“…The articles collected in this Special Issue focus on the following aspects of the interaction of air pollution with snow and the effects of seasonality: (1) the impact of deposited air pollutants on the snow albedo [2,11,12], (2) the composition and properties of particulate and volatile air pollutants detected in snow [4,7,8,11], (3) links with the sources and impact assessment, including, more specifically, seasonality of black carbon in the air and snow [1,2,5,9,12], (4) metals and metalloids in snow [4,6], (5) radioactive isotopes in snow [10], (6) snowpack pollution as an indicator of atmospheric pollution [1,[6][7][8]10,12], (7) photochemistry of compounds released due to interactions with anthropogenic particles that became mixed with snow [3], and (8) the effect of snow on greenhouse gas fluxes from the underlying peat [13].…”

“…They note sharp differences in the mineralogical composition of particulate matter in snow and explore its association with geography. Nemirovskaya and colleagues [8] investigated the organic chemical speciation of air pollutants in the snow and ice of high-latitude areas of the Arctic and the Antarctic. They highlight the high degree of preservation of the mineral, biogenic, and anthropogenic particles in the upper layer of ice in these regions.…”

“…They highlight the high degree of preservation of the mineral, biogenic, and anthropogenic particles in the upper layer of ice in these regions. Nemirovskaya and colleagues [8] also demonstrated the possibility of source apportionment for organic air pollutants based on their distribution in the snow and ice. They discuss the effects of topography, the phenomena associated with the oases in the regions, and meteorology, particularly winds, the importance of which was also noted by Zhang and colleagues [5] and Wang and colleagues [9].…”