Abstract
The Arctic has for a long time been used for the monitoring of long range transported pollutants. This is because it has a low population and therefore a low local impact on the concentrations of pollutants, in addition to many pollutants accumulating in the area due to being transported further and further towards the poles. A certain degree of local impact will however still occur, so choosing sampling locations carefully is important when assessing purely the long range transportation. This study examines the concentrations of metals and organic pollutants in the soil at Brøggerdalen, near Ny-Ålesund, and assesses the impact of local pollution in the area by comparing the concentrations of metals in moss with the metal concentration in moss from three other locations further away from the settlement to determine if Brøggerdalen would be an appropriate location for background values.
Five soil samples were collected at Brøggerdalen together with fifteen samples of the moss \textit{Hylocomium splendens}. A total of 21 samples of \textit{Hylocomium splendens} were also sampled at Stuphallet, Blomstrandhalvøya, and Kiærstranda. The samples were analyzed for the concentrations of 51 elements by ICP-MS, and the soil was analyzed for organic pollutants by an external laboratory. Total organic carbon and nitrogen was also determined for all five soil samples.
None of the seven PCBs analyzed were found in the soil, and three out of 15 PAHs were found above the limit of quantification: naphthalene, fluorene, and Benzo[b]fluoranthene/ Benzo[k]fluoranthene, with naphthalene having the largest concentration at 0.11 mg/kg dw. One PFAS was found above the limit of quantification: PFHxA, at 5.1 $\mu$g/kg dw. For the compounds not found it is however likely many of them were present in the soil at concentrations below the limit of quantification. The metals in the soil were at similar values as previous studies, indicating the validity of the results, with the exceptions of antimony, mercury, and tungsten, making the results from these three elements most likely unreliable. The metal concentrations found in the moss also seem to be of similar values to previous studies done in the area.
27 out of 49 elements showed significantly higher concentrations in the moss from Brøggerdalen compared to the other sampling locations. Brøggerdalen is therefore determined to be unsuitable as a background area. Though these concentration differences were found in moss, these differences are assumed to be transferable to other environmental compartments as well, as moss primarily takes up pollutants from the air, either directly or by deposition, a process assumed to affect most environmental compartments such as soil or small bodies of water in similar fashions. Exactly how other environmental compartments would be affected is however not certain, and further studies on other environmental compartments are recommended before firm conclusions can be drawn.
