Issue 4, 2021

The fate of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances in a marine food web influenced by land-based sources in the Norwegian Arctic

Abstract

Although poly- and perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are ubiquitous in the Arctic, their sources and fate in Arctic marine environments remain unclear. Herein, abiotic media (water, snow, and sediment) and biotic media (plankton, benthic organisms, fish, crab, and glaucous gull) were sampled to study PFAS uptake and fate in the marine food web of an Arctic Fjord in the vicinity of Longyearbyen (Svalbard, Norwegian Arctic). Samples were collected from locations impacted by a firefighting training site (FFTS) and a landfill as well as from a reference site. Mean Image ID:d0em00510j-t1.gif concentration in the landfill leachate was 643 ± 84 ng L−1, while it was 365 ± 8.0 ng L−1 in a freshwater pond and 57 ± 4.0 ng L−1 in a creek in the vicinity of the FFTS. These levels were an order of magnitude higher than in coastal seawater of the nearby fjord (maximum level Image ID:d0em00510j-t2.gif, at the FFTS impacted site). PFOS was the most predominant compound in all seawater samples and in freshly fallen snow (63–93% of Image ID:d0em00510j-t3.gif). In freshwater samples from the Longyear river and the reference site, PFCA ≤ C9 were the predominant PFAS (37–59%), indicating that both local point sources and diffuse sources contributed to the exposure of the marine food web in the fjord. Image ID:d0em00510j-t4.gif concentrations increased from zooplankton (1.1 ± 0.32 μg kg−1 ww) to polychaete (2.8 ± 0.80 μg kg−1 ww), crab (2.9 ± 0.70 μg kg−1 ww whole-body), fish liver (5.4 ± 0.87 μg kg−1 ww), and gull liver (62.2 ± 11.2 μg kg−1). PFAS profiles changed with increasing trophic level from a large contribution of 6:2 FTS, FOSA and long-chained PFCA in zooplankton and polychaetes to being dominated by linear PFOS in fish and gull liver. The PFOS isomer profile (branched versus linear) in the active FFTS and landfill was similar to historical ECF PFOS. A similar isomer profile was observed in seawater, indicating major contribution from local sources. However, a PFOS isomer profile enriched by the linear isomer was observed in other media (sediment and biota). Substitutes for PFOS, namely 6:2 FTS and PFBS, showed bioaccumulation potential in marine invertebrates. However, these compounds were not found in organisms at higher trophic levels.

Graphical abstract: The fate of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances in a marine food web influenced by land-based sources in the Norwegian Arctic

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
14 dec 2020
Accepted
28 feb 2021
First published
11 mrt 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2021,23, 588-604

The fate of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances in a marine food web influenced by land-based sources in the Norwegian Arctic

A. M. Ali, H. A. Langberg, S. E. Hale, R. Kallenborn, W. F. Hartz, Å. Mortensen, T. M. Ciesielski, C. A. McDonough, B. M. Jenssen and G. D. Breedveld, Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2021, 23, 588 DOI: 10.1039/D0EM00510J

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements