Bias correction for studies of long range transported pollutants in Ny-Ålesund. (BIASPOL) RiS-ID: 11378

This Arctic Field Grant will cover essential fieldwork required for my master project at the international master program in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Department of Chemistry NTNU. Main objective is to establish bias correction for studies of long range transported pollutants in Ny-Ålesund. This is also the main reason to carry out the fieldwork at Mitrahalvøya as this location is geographical remote and has long distances to potential local sources of pollutants. At the same time, this location is easy to reach from Ny-Ålesund. As local sources is assumed to be negligible at Mitrahalvøya, the results will be important bias correction of past data and future data produced from Ny-Ålesund area, and potential other areas at Svalbard as well. There are some work on bias corrections available for atmospheric monitoring and metrology. However, to our knowledge bias correction for selected environmental toxicants including mercury, cadmium, lead, PAHs and PCPs in soil and river water systems has not been studied. The fieldwork will be carried out by hiking, except from the transportation from Ny-Ålesund to Laksebu at Diesetsletta which is planned by boat (assisted by Norsk Polarinstiutt) during August 2020, and will involve sampling of small volumes of river and lake water, small amounts of overbank deposits and a limited amount of soil samples for inorganic and organic analyses. The planned sampling period doesn’t overlap with nesting periods for birds. Areas containing red listed plants will not be sampled.