Evidence of currently-used pesticides in air, ice, fog, seawater and surface microlayer in the Bering and Chukchi seas

Investigation of currently-used pesticides (triazines, acetanilides, organophosphates and organochlorines) was carried out in the Bering and Chukchi marine ecosystems in the summer of 1993. Chlorpyrifos and trace levels of endosulphan were the most frequently identified contaminants in seawater, chlorpyrifos and atrazine were found in marine ice, and chlorothalonil and trifluralin were found in surface microlayer samples. Concentrations of chlorpyrifos were highest (170 ng l−1) in marine ice and higher in seawater (19–67 ng l−1) at locations which were closest to the ice edge. Endosulphan was found as a widely distributed currently used pesticide in the polar atmosphere. The greatest concentration of any one single agrochemical was trifluralin (1.15 μg l−1) in a Bristol Bay surface microlayer sample. Arctic marine fog was sampled and for the first time, several currently-used pesticides (chlorpyrifos, trifluralin, metolachlor, chlorothalonil, terbufos and endosulphan) were detected at concentrations several times higher than in adjacent waters or ice.