Assessing Legacy and Emerging Contaminants in Canadian Arctic Air and Water Bodies as an Entry Point into the Arctic Food Chain: 2023-2024

As part of NCP and ArcticNet, air, water, sediment and zooplankton samples were collected from on board the CCGS Amundsen. Additional water samples were collected from the CCGS Laurier in the Beaufort Sea. Different types of water samples were collected: grab and passive samples. Grad samples of surface water (1-L) and water at depth were collected in glass bottles for flame retardants and shipped back to the lab for processing. Grab samples for per-fluorinated compounds (1-L) were also collected at the surface and at two-three depths in plastic bottles and shipped back to the lab for processing. Grab water samples (100-L) were also collected for legacy and current use pesticides and plastic associated chemicals. Passive water samples were placed on mooring lines in the Beaufort Sea and Baffin Bay, these samples remain in the water column for a year, after which they are retrieved and sent back to the lab for analysis. Air samples are collected form the bow of the CCGS Amundsen, these are continuous samples used to monitor legacy and current use pesticides, flame-retardants, per- and poly-fluorinated compounds and plastic associated chemicals. Sediment are taken with a sediment corer, the surface 0-5cm is scraped, placed in a glass jar and set back to the lab for analysis for the same chemicals listed above. Zooplankton samples are collected using trawls with net size of 200um. The bulk zooplankton is speciated and analyzed for the chemicals list above. When back in the lab, the samples are extracted, processed and analyzed by gas-chromatography mass spectrometry and/or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.