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TOXIC SUBSTANSES IN THE ARCTIC – EFFECTS ON ECOSYSTEMS AND HUMANS Lars-Otto Reiersen, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, (AMAP), Gaustadall’een 21, Oslo, Norway. [email protected] Abstract AMAP was established 20 years ago to monitor and assess levels, trends and affects due to pollution and climate change on Arctic ecosystems and humans. In addition, the Ministers from the eight Arctic countries asked AMAP to prepare list of actions that they may take on jointly or individually to protect the Arctic environment. The presentation will give an overview of the results documenting the situation regarding pollution and climate change and especially the global influence on the Arctic and actions that has been initiated to protect the Arctic both at international and local level. Introduction AMAP was initiated in 1991 by Ministers from the eight Arctic countries (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and USA) that today is the Arctic Council. The Arctic indigenous peoples have a special seat in the Arctic Council as Permanent Participants. AMAP was tasked to monitor and assess the pollution of the Arctic, including effects on ecosystems and humans. In 1993, AMAP was asked to include assessments of climate change - including UV/ozone and its effects on Arctic ecosystems and humans. Since 1993 AMAP has delivered more than 30 scientific and technical assessments. During the first ten years the main focus was on contaminants like persistent organic pollutants (POPs), heavy metals (especially mercury, lead and cadmium), radionuclides (mainly due to military activities and reprocessing plants), acidification (especially forest death around smelters) and petroleum hydrocarbons (AMAP, 1998, 2003a, 2004a, b, c, 2005, 2006, 2009a, b, c, 2011a). During the following ten years the climate change got increasing priority (ACIA 2005, AMAP 2011b), and today it is the combined effects of climate, pollutants and other stressors that has the main focus (AMAP 2011c & d, UNEP/AMAP 2011). Over all the years, the effects due to pollution and climate change on humans, especially the indigenous peoples has been a priority area in relation to their food security and life style and to provide advice to health workers. Materials and methods AMAP has developed strict Guidelines for the work to be done, both for the monitoring part, the assessment and data handling. AMAP recommend methodologies accepted by international scientific communities and other international organization to achieve comparable data. There are special requirements for QA/QC programmes and reporting to Thematic Data Centers. The Guidelines are updated when new components are added or new methods accepted. All of these Guidelines are available from AMAP web site www.amap.no . Results The assessments have documented that a range of contaminants: POPs, heavy metals like mercury and lead, radionuclides and acidifying components have been and still are transported into the Arctic area and deposited in the environment. Some of these contaminants accumulate in food chains, and some also bio-magnify in species that feed high in the food chain, including humans. POPs accumulate mainly in the marine food web and are bound to lipids (fat), with potential to affect high trophic level predators such as polar bears and killer whales, but also indigenous human populations that consume marine mammals as part of their traditional diet. The same goes for mercury which also accumulates in fish and marine mammals, whereas for radionuclides, the terrestrial food chain is most affected and indigenous people living on reindeer meat are the most exposed groups. Effects due to the exposure to POPs and methyl mercury have been documented in Arctic animals (e.g. polar bear and glaoucous gulls) and humans. This paradoxical situation –- where Arctic people that hardly used and had little benefit from products containing these harmful contaminants, are among the most highly exposed groups to these contaminants anywhere on the planet - has resulted in the so-called “the Arctic dilemma”. The marine food chain is rich in fat, which provides energy as well as essential vitamins for humans. POPs accumulate in the blubber and mercury in the meat of Arctic marine organisms - two main components of a diet that can be a key to survival under the harsh conditions that exist in the Arctic. Some local industrial activities have had a significant effect on local forest and freshwater systems, especially around the large Russian smelter complex at Norilsk on the Taimyr and Nickel on the Kola Peninsula. In addition to long range transport of contaminants, a local use of pesticides has also been documented in some areas of the Arctic, partly due to military activities and partly in households and in animal herding. Thus exposure to contaminants from local sources comes on top of the long range transported contaminants and has been shown to affect specific groups of people. The last six years have been the warmest years ever recorded in the Arctic since 1880. The melting of the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic mountain glaciers and ice caps have increased over the last decades, the permafrost is thawing and the sea ice has been thinner and the extent of the summer sea ice reduced since satellite observations started in the 70-ties. Combined effects with Short Lived Climate Forces (black carbon, ozone, etc.) and feedback mechanisms (reduced albedo and increased heat adsorption) have been documented in the latest reports (AMAP 2011b & c?). Climate models predict temperature increases that may have a dramatic effect on the ice and snow conditions in large parts of the Arctic on time scales as short as a few decades. The melting of multiyear land ice and thawing of permafrost is remobilizing contaminants that has been deposited. AMAP has also reported an interesting link between climate change and the transport of contaminant and precipitation over the Arctic – combined effects. The climate change is affecting the Northern areas and it is creating challenges and opportunities. Challenges for the local people to continue the traditional life style, e.g. when sea ice is no longer close to the coast bring seals to the hunters, and then change in snow and permafrost are affecting terrestrial ecosystems and thereby herding, hunting and food storage. Opportunities are for increased sea transport, mining and oil and gas exploration and exploitation, tourism, etc. Discussion The results from AMAP have played a significant role in the establishment of international protocols and conventions to handle pollution, e.g. the Århus protocol and the Stockholm convention (Reiersen et.al; 2003). AMAP has established a close cooperation with UNEP Chemicals with the work to achieve a better control for global emission of mercury and we have produced a technical assessment together (AMAP/UNEP 2008,) and an updated is under preparation. The hot spot identifications that AMAP made in Russia (AMAP 1995, 2000, 2003b, 2008) has played a significant role in the clean up programmes initiated in Russia, both in vicinity of villages, industry- and military sites, e.g. PCB and obsolete pesticides, the decommissioning of nuclear submarines e.g. there is today only one nuclear submarine in North West Russia that has not been decommissioned, and the clean-up of the high Arctic military base at Frantz Josef Land of barrels with fuels and lubricants has started. Regarding climate, the Polar chapter of the IPCC report in 2007 built a lot on the ACIA 2005, the next IPCC report has received all the latest reports from AMAP (AMAP 2011, a & b) – “The Snow Water Ice and Permafrost Report (SWIPA)” and the report on “Impact of Black Carbon Arctic Climate”. AMAP is at present implementing a scientific project assessing the combined effects of climate change and contaminants on human health – the ArcRisk project to be presented in 2014. In addition, we are assessing the status and effects due to increased acidification of Arctic oceans, the Arctic Ocean Acidification Assessment (AOA) to be delivered in 2013. AMAP together with international organizations has put priority on analysing the combined effects of several stressors or drivers on Arctic ecosystems, the human health and the societies. We intend to perform a significant work on the effects and adaptation to the Arctic Change issue the next five years. All AMAP assessment reports are available from the AMAP web site www.amap.no . The official reports are in English, and produced in both the Scientific and Layman style (summary) reports. Some of the summary reports have been translated to other languages including Russian, Norwegian, Danish, Saami, etc. The presentation will provide some more details related to the text presented in the abstract. References ACIA 2005. Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA). Cambridge University Press, 1042pp. AMAP 1995. NEFCO Barents Region Environmental Programme. Proposal for sound investment projects in the Russian part of the Barents region. Volume 2: Radioactive contaminants. AMAP. Oslo. Norway. 41pp. AMAP 1998. AMAP Assessment Report: Arctic Pollution Issues. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway. xii+859pp. AMAP 2000. PCB in the Russian Federation: Inventory and Proposals for Priority Remedial Actions. Executive Summary. AMAP Report 2000:3, 27pp. Oslo. Norway. AMAP 2003a. AMAP Assessment 2002: Human Health in the Arctic. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway. xiii+137 pp. AMAP 2003b. Updating of Environmental “Hot Spots” List in the Russian Part of the Barents Region: Proposal for Environmental Sound Investment Projects. AMAP, Oslo. Norway. 115pp. AMAP 2004a. AMAP Assessment 2002: Radioactivity in the Arctic. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway. xi+100pp. AMAP 2004b. AMAP Assessment 2002: Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Arctic. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway. xv+309pp. AMAP, 2004c. Persistent Toxic Substances, Food Security and Indigenous Peoples of the Russian North. Final Report. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway. 192pp. AMAP 2005. AMAP Assessment 2002: Heavy Metals in the Arctic. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway. xv+265pp. AMAP 2006. Arctic Assessment 2006: Acidifying Pollutants, Arctic Haze, and Acidification in the Arctic. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway. xi+111pp. AMAP 2008. 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 Frantz Josef Land Archipelago. NEFCO, AMAP & Polar Foundation, Moscow. 239pp. AMAP 2009a. AMAP Assessment 2009: Radioactivity in the Arctic. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway.xii+92pp. AMAP 2009b. AMAP Assessment 2009: Persistent organic Pollutants in the Arctic. Science of the Total Environment. Volume 408/15 (2010). AMAP 2009c. AMAP Assessment 2009: Human health in the Arctic. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway.xiv+254pp. AMAP 2010. Assessment 2007: Oil and Gas Activities in the Arctic – Effects and Potential Effects. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). Vol. 1, vii+415pp & Vol. 2, viii+269pp. Oslo, Norway. AMAP 2011a. AMAP Assessment 2011: Mercury in the Arctic. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). Oslo. Norway. Xiv+193pp. AMAP 2011b. Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA): Climate Change and the Cryosphere. Xii+533pp AMAP 2011c. The Impact of Black Carbon on Arctic Climate. AMAP Technical Report No. 4 (2011). Oslo, Norway. 70pp. AMAP 2011d. Combined Effects of Selected Pollutants and Climate Change in the Arctic Environment. AMAP Technical Report No. 5 (2011) Oslo, Norway. 108pp. AMAP/UNEP 2008. Technical Background Report on the Global Atmospheric Mercury Assessment. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP)/ UNEP Chemicals Branch. 159pp. Reiersen et al., 2003. Circumpolar perspectives on persistent organic pollutants: The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme. P 60-86 in Northern Lights against POPs. Combating toxic threats in the Arctic.D.L. Downie and T. Fenge (eds.) McGill-Queen’s University Press, Qubeck. 347pp. UNEP/AMAP 2011. Climate Change and POPs: Predicting the Impacts. 62pp. Geneva. Switzerland.