Transport and Fate of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in Antarctic Coastal Seas.

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The Antarctic region is typically considered pristine, being distant and largely sheltered from the industrialized world. But concern about the movement of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) throughout the global environment via long-range atmospheric transport has escalated greatly in the last two decades. The potential for POP contamination via atmospheric transport, cold condensation and deposition on sea ice present an intriguing and uniquely polar issue. The overall goal of this proposed work is to understand the interactions among atmospheric deposition, sea ice coverage and melting, solar irradiance and microbial decomposition in mobilizing persistent organic pollutants in Antarctic foodwebs. In cooperation with the Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research program (LTER), the proposed work aims to document the accumulation of selected model POPs in sea ice and the water column along the West Antarctic Peninsula. Furthermore, key physical and biological/chemical processes influencing POP removal rates, turnover, and residence times would also be investigated.