The Arctic Environmental Problems - New Ecoinformatics Tools in Environmental Science: Applications and Decision-making - page 534

Table 6.12 Estimates of
heavy metal flows to and from
the atmosphere (Kondratyev
et al. 2002)

Heavy
metal

Parameter
Atmospheric deposition,
Q e w (mg/m 2 /h)

Evaporation and
spray, H a (t/year)

Ag 0.7 7

Cd 1.1 58

Co 0.3 5

Cr 1.8 188

Cu 15 169

Fe 599 894

Hg 0.6 3

Mn 4.2 283

Ni 5.5 60

Pb 48 5

Sb 0.05 123

Zn 109 4,471

show that the intensity of the anthropogenic sources of the oil hydrocarbons Q ðÞ
estimated by McIntyre (1999) is transformed to other forms by 56 % in the envi-
ronments of the surface snow, floating ice and submerged ice and by 72 % in the

water. The stabilization of the distribution of the oil hydrocarbons is realized in
3 years after t 0 .
The average level of oil pollution in the Arctic Basin reaches the value of
0.005 mg/l. This is lower than the natural level of World Ocean pollution. In the
in

fl

cant
excess of this level is observed. The Barents and Kara Seas are the most polluted.
Here the concentration of oil hydrocarbons reaches the value 0.03 mg/l. An average
summary content of oil hydrocarbons in the Arctic Basin is 65,331 t (metric tons)
with a dispersion of 32 %. The hierarchy of

fl uence zone of the Gulf-stream current and in the Paci c waters an insigni

ows H i O (i =1,

fl … , 7) (see Eq. 6.10 )is

estimated by the set of H O [ H O . This set is changed for

each of the Arctic Seas The order of preponderance of the destruction processes H i O
of the oil hydrocarbons is de

H O [ H O [ H O [ H O [

ned by the seasonal conditions. The oxidation process

at the expense of evaporation of the oil hydrocarbons H O prevails over the other
processes in the summer.
In reality, the oil hydrocarbons evaporated from the surface of the Arctic Seas
return to the Arctic Basin with the atmospheric precipitation. These processes
are simulated in the blocks APM and PSM. The maximal destruction of oil hydro-
carbons is 0.0028 g m − 2 day − 1 . The

ow H O due to bacterial decomposition
averages 27 t year − 1 . It has unequal values for different seas (t year − 1 ): Bering

fl

— 3.7,

Greenland — 11, Norwegian — 2.2, Barents — 3.4, Kara — 2.3, White — 2.3, Laptev —

2.8, East Siberian 0.5.

The total estimate of the role of the Arctic Basin ecosystem in the dynamics of
the oil hydrocarbons is traced for each of Arctic Seas. As an example, Fig. 6.9 gives
such results for the Barents Sea. The discrepancy between the simulation results

— 2.8, Chukchi — 3.4, Beaufort — 2.5, Central Basin —