This dataset contains concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in seawater sampled in various locations in the Arctic ranging from 2005-2008.
Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are ubiquitous contaminants of marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments, including remote arctic wildlife. Slow, and long-range oceanic transport from source regions in the northern hemisphere is hypothesized to be among the major pathways contributing to PFAA contamination in remote marine environments.
The Arctic Ocean is influenced by Pacific and Atlantic seawater as well as riverine outflows. Surface waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas and the western parts of the Canadian archipelago originate from Pacific waters and from major freshwater outflows from Russian, Alaskan, and western Canadian Arctic rivers. Waters of Baffin Bay and the northern Labrador Sea are influenced by Atlantic waters and the east Greenland current. Major inflowing rivers in Europe and North America deliver tons of PFAAs per year into the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas.
Supplemental Information
The Northern Contaminants Program(NCP, http://www.science.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_7A463DBA.html) was established in 1991 in response to concerns about human exposure to elevated levels of contaminants in wildlife species that are important to the traditional diets of northern Aboriginal peoples. Early studies found a wide variety of substances, many of which had no Arctic or Canadian sources, but which were, nevertheless, reaching unexpectedly high levels in the Arctic ecosystem.
The Canadian Cryospheric Information Network (CCIN, https://www.ccin.ca/) and the Polar Data Catalogue (PDC, https://polardata.ca/) have been developed over the past two decades through collaborative partnerships between the University of Waterloo and numerous government, university, and private organizations to provide the data and information management infrastructure for the Canadian cryospheric community. The PDC is one of Canada’s primary online sources for data and information about the Arctic and is Canada's National Antarctica Data Centre.
Polar Data Catalogue Canadian Cryospheric Information Network Metadata Record:
PDC: https://www.polardata.ca/pdcsearch/PDCSearchDOI.jsp?doi_id=12073