Author(s): Manfred A. Lange
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Abstract: The awareness of significant levels of contamination in arctic terrestrial and marine ecosystems has led to increasing research activities addressing this issue. This has resulted in the realization that most of the contaminants are extant to the Arctic and originate in the industrial centers of North America, East Asia and Central Europe. Besides marine, fluvial and atmospheric transports, sea ice plays an important role as a transport medium of contaminants. Because of the ever increasing importance of offshore hydrocarbon deposits in arctic coastal waters, there is a growing threat of oil being spilled or seeped onto land or the ocean. The removal of oil in arctic waters is particularly difficult because of oil entering the sea ice pore spaces. Once entrapped, the oil will be transported through the Arctic Basin and will likely enter the water column either during seasonal melt events or upon the ice being melted entirely in the North Atlantic. In this paper, we review some of the important processes and conditions governing the fate of oil contamination in arctic sea ice.
Year: 2002