Assessing Legacy and Emerging Contaminants in Canadian Arctic Air and Water Bodies as an Entry Point into the Arctic Food Chain: 2020-2021

Part of Canadas commitment to international agreements is to monitor levels of specific contaminants in the environment. To comply with this obligation and to know how contaminant levels are changing in the Arctic, water samples were collected in the summer of 2020 from on board the CCGS Wilfrid Laurier in the Beauford Sea. The major concern with these compounds is exposure to Northerners when eating traditional foods such as fish, seals and whales that are in turn exposed through the Arctic ecosystem. We have described trends for many POPs in air and water over time at different locations in the Canadian Archipelago. For example, we have documented the widespread presence of organophosphate esters in Arctic air and that levels of some could be increasing. We propose to continue to monitor these trends and to collect data to describe trends for emerging compounds of concern. This research has set baseline concentrations against which changes can be benchmarked as the climate and compound emissions change. Additionally, we propose to once again recruit and train northern students during each summer from Northern Colleges/University to participate in ArcticNet on board the CCGS Amundsen. Finally, we will visit each territory over the next three years to consult with the local community and to engage with and build capacity with high school and college students.

加拿大履行国际协定承诺的一项核心内容，是对环境中特定污染物的浓度水平开展监测。为履行该义务并掌握北极地区污染物浓度的变化情况，研究团队于2020年夏季在波弗特海（Beauford Sea）的加拿大海岸警卫队威尔弗里德·劳里埃号（CCGS Wilfrid Laurier）上采集了水样。此类污染物的主要健康风险在于，北极原住民食用鱼类、海豹、鲸鱼等传统食物时会接触到这些污染物，而这些海洋生物本身也会通过北极生态系统受到污染。我们已梳理了加拿大北极群岛不同区域多年来空气与水体中多种持久性有机污染物（POPs）的变化趋势。例如，我们已证实北极大气中广泛存在磷酸酯类有机物，且部分此类物质的浓度呈上升趋势。我们计划持续监测此类变化趋势，并收集数据以明确受关注的新型污染物的变化规律。本研究已确立基准浓度值，可用于对标气候变化与污染物排放变化所引发的浓度波动。此外，我们计划每年夏季从北方地区的院校招募并培训北部学生，让他们参与在加拿大海岸警卫队阿蒙森号（CCGS Amundsen）上开展的北极网（ArcticNet）项目。最后，我们将在未来三年内走访各北极领地，与当地社区开展咨询交流，并与中学生及高校学生互动，提升他们的相关科研能力。