The Use of Arctic Science: POPs, the Stockholm Convention and Norway

The focus in this article is on how scientific knowledge on POPs in the Arctic has been used in international regulations, and can be used today. More specifically, I explore Norway’s active (and successful) nominations over the past decade of new POPs to the Stockholm Convention, nominations that need a scientific knowledge basis, and where Arctic scientific knowledge has been a prerequisite for action. The article will first discuss the Stockholm Convention`s relation to other legal instruments on regulating POPs, and provide an introduction to how the Convention works. However, to obtain a more complete picture of how science travels into global governance we need to bring the State in. We need to know how scientific knowledge is used (or not used) at the national level. The question guiding the second part of this study is what has determined the use of scientific knowledge in Norwegian efforts leading to the nomination of new POPs to the Stockholm Convention. The focus is on environmental management design, state of knowledge, degree of political and economic controversy in the issue area, and the importance of the matter in public opinion and among policy makers. The conclusion is that Norway has had little to lose by initiating work on regulating new POPs and being active in the nomination of new POPs. Being green (or using scientific knowledge) in this case has been scientifically demanding, but politically easy

TECHNICAL REPORT ON THE SURVEY OF THE CURRENT STATE OF THE AREAS OF DECOMMISSIONED MILITARY BASES OF THE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE ON HOFFMAN, GRAHAM BELL AND ALEXANDRA ISLANDS OF FRANZ JOSEF LAND ARCHIPELAGO

This report presents the results of the survey of the state of the areas of decommissioned sites of the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense on Hoffman, Graham Bell and Alexandra Islands of Franz Josef Land Archipelago

AMAP Assessment 2009: Radioactivity in the Arctic

This report provides the main conclusions and recommendations of the 2009 AMAP assessments

Economic value of ecosystem services, minerals and oil in a melting Arctic: a preliminary assessment

The Arctic region is composed of unique marine and terrestrial ecosystems that provide a range of services to local and global populations. However, Arctic sea-ice and permafrost is melting at an unprecedented rate, threatening many of these ecosystems and the services they provide. This short communication provides a preliminary assessment of the quantity, distribution and economic value of key ecosystem services as well as geological resources such as oil and minerals provided by Arctic ecosystems to beneficiaries in the Arctic region and globally. Using biophysical and economic data from existing studies, preliminary estimates indicate that the Arctic currently provides about $$281 billion per year (in 2016 US$) in terms of food, mineral extraction, oil production, tourism, hunting, existence values and climate regulation. However, given predictions of ice-free summers by 2037, many of the ecosystem services may be lost. We hope that this communication stimulates discussion among policy-makers regarding the value of ecosystem services and such geological resources as minerals and oil provided by the Arctic region, and the potential ecosystem losses resulting from Arctic melt, so as to motivate decisions vis a vis climate change mitigation before Arctic ice disappears completely

U.S. CH4 emissions from oil and gas production: Have recent large increases been detected?

Recent studies have proposed significant increases in CH4 emissions possibly from oil and gas (O&G) production, especially for the U.S. where O&G production has reached historically high levels over the past decade. In this study, we show that an ensemble of time-dependent atmospheric inversions constrained by calibrated atmospheric observations of surface CH4 mole fraction, with some including space-based retrievals of column average CH4 mole fractions, suggests that North American CH4 emissions have been flat over years spanning 2000 through 2012. Estimates of emission trends using zonal gradients of column average CH4 calculated relative to an upstream background are not easy to make due to atmospheric variability, relative insensitivity of column average CH4 to surface emissions at regional scales, and fast zonal synoptic transport. In addition, any trends in continental enhancements of column average CH4 are sensitive to how the upstream background is chosen, and model simulations imply that short-term (4 years or less) trends in column average CH4 horizontal gradients of up to 1.5 ppb/yr can occur just from interannual transport variability acting on a strong latitudinal CH4 gradient. Finally, trends in spatial gradients calculated from space-based column average CH4 can be significantly biased (>2-3 ppb/yr) due to the nonuniform and seasonally varying temporal coverage of satellite retrievals.CC-BY 4.

Toward the next generation of air quality monitoring: Persistent organic pollutants

AbstractPersistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are global pollutants that can migrate over long distances and bioaccumulate through food webs, posing health risks to wildlife and humans. Multilateral environmental agreements, such as the Stockholm Convention on POPs, were enacted to identify POPs and establish the conditions to control their release, production and use. A Global Monitoring Plan was initiated under the Stockholm Convention calling for POP monitoring in air as a core medium; however long temporal trends (>10 years) of atmospheric POPs are only available at a few selected sites. Spatial coverage of air monitoring for POPs has recently significantly improved with the introduction and advancement of passive air samplers. Here, we review the status of air monitoring and modeling activities and note major uncertainties in data comparability, deficiencies of air monitoring and modeling in urban and alpine areas, and lack of emission inventories for most POPs. A vision for an internationally-integrated strategic monitoring plan is proposed which could provide consistent and comparable monitoring data for POPs supported and supplemented by global and regional transport models. Key recommendations include developing expertise in all aspects of air monitoring to ensure data comparability and consistency; partnering with existing air quality and meteorological networks to leverage synergies; facilitating data sharing with international data archives; and expanding spatial coverage with passive air samplers. Enhancing research on the stability of particle-bound chemicals is needed to assess exposure and deposition in urban areas, and to elucidate long-range transport. Conducting targeted measurement campaigns in specific source areas would enhance regional models which can be extrapolated to similar regions to estimate emissions. Ultimately, reverse-modeling combined with air measurements can be used to derive “emission” as an indicator to assess environmental performance with respect to POPs on the country, region, or global level

The Andes Cordillera. Part IV: spatio-temporal freshwater run-off distribution to adjacent seas (1979-2014)

The spatio-temporal freshwater river run-off pattern from individual basins, including their run-off magnitude and change (1979/1980–2013/2014), was simulated for the Andes Cordillera west of the Continental Divide in an effort to understand run-off variations and freshwater fluxes to adjacent fjords, Pacific Ocean, and Drake Passage. The modelling tool SnowModel/HydroFlow was applied to simulate river run-off at 3-h intervals to resolve the diurnal cycle and at 4-km horizontal grid increments using atmospheric forcing from NASA Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) data sets. Simulated river run-off hydrographs were verified against independent observed hydrographs. For the domain, 86% of the simulated run-off originated from rain, 12% from snowmelt, and 2% from ice melt, whereas for Chile, the water-source distribution was 69, 24, and 7%, respectively. Along the Andes Cordillera, the 35-year mean basin outlet-specific run-off (L s−1 km−2) showed a characteristic regional hourglass shape pattern with highest run-off in both Colombia and Ecuador and in Patagonia, and lowest run-off in the Atacama Desert area. An Empirical Orthogonal Function analysis identified correlations between the spatio-temporal pattern of run-off and flux to the El Niño Southern Oscillation Index and to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation

Indications of decreasing human PTS concentrations in North West Russia

The Russian Arctic covers an enormous landmass with diverse environments. It inhabits more than 20 different ethnic groups, all of them with various living conditions and food traditions. Indigenous populations with a traditional way of living are exposed to a large number of anthropogenic pollutants, such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and toxic metals, mainly through the diet. Human monitoring of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals in the Russian Arctic has only been performed on irregular intervals over the past 15 years, thus, there is still a lack of baseline data from many ethnic groups and geographical regions. The aim of the current study was to investigate concentrations of POPs and toxic metals in three groups of indigenous people from the Russian Arctic. Plasma concentrations of POPs were measured in one of the locations (Nelmin-Nos) in 2001–2003 which gave the unique opportunity to compare concentrations over time in a small Russian arctic community. During 2009 and early 2010, 209 blood samples were collected from three different study sites in North West Russia; Nelmin-Nos, Izhma and Usinsk. The three study sites are geographically separated and the inhabitants are expected to have different dietary habits and living conditions. All blood samples were analyzed for POPs and toxic metals. PCB 153 was present in highest concentrations of the 18 PCBs analyzed. p,p′-DDE and HCB were the two most dominating OC pesticides. Males had higher concentrations of PCB 138, 153 and 180 than women and age was a significant predictor of PCB 153, 180, HCB and p,p′-DDD. Males from Izhma had significantly higher concentrations of HCB than males from the other study sites and women from Usinsk had higher concentrations of p,p′-DDE. Parity was a significant predictor of p,p′-DDE. Hg and Pb concentrations increased with increasing age and males had significantly higher concentrations of Pb than women. The study group from Izhma had significantly higher concentrations of Cd when controlling for age and gender and the study group from Usinsk had higher concentrations of Se than the others. Compared to the results from Nelmin-Nos in 2001–2003, a clear decrease in p,p′-DDE concentrations for both women and men was observed. The current study indicates a significant reduction of several PTSs in human blood samples from North West Russia over the past 10 years