Influence of coastal permafrost thawing on biogeochemistry and pollutants of the sea water

We hypothesise that thawing of permafrost can be an important source for certain chemical parameters at least in the coastal Arctic areas. Our approach for testing our hypothesis is to conduct a laboratory experiment to study changes in the content of chemical parameters in the seawater when permafrost is added. The project will consist of fieldwork on Svalbard during summer, laboratory work at UNIS, and subsequently analysis and interpretation of results of the analysis.During the fieldwork, we plan to take samples of permafrost from an abrasive cliff on Svalbard outside of Longyearbyen. The samples will be used in an experiment to be conducted at UNIS immediately following the fieldwork. The measured parameters will include pH, carbonate system, nutrients, metals, including mercury and methylmercury and organic contaminants. Procedures for the evaluation of the fate of inorganic and organic pollutants will be different. For inorganic pollutants and nutrients, the collected permafrost samples will be exposed for 5 days in an open air simulating the natural conditions ("microcosm" experiment). For organic pollutants we will apply different extraction techniques and procedures including passive sampling, in the laboratory to screen for the presence of PAHs, certain POPs such as PCBs, and perfluorchemicals The analyses treatment will be conducted as a close collaboration between Norwegian and Russian teams using laboratories at NIVA, UNIS, Typhoon and SOI. The data gathering in the proposed project will be uploaded to the databases and in particulate, become a part of PhD thesis of Maria Pogojeva "Biogeochemical regime of coastal waters influenced to coastal runoff, permafrost thawing and glacial melting"