Influence of deep water formation by open-sea convection on the transport of low hydrophobicity organic pollutants in the NW Mediterranean Sea.

The significance of the offshore vertical convection currents in the transport and sinking of water-soluble organic pollutants into marine deep basins has been evaluated. For this purpose, sediment cores were collected in the Gulf of Lion (GoL) at sites between 26 and 2330 m water depth. The top core layers were analyzed for aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons and organochlorine compounds.

Spatial Distributions of DDTs in the Water Masses of the Arctic Ocean.

There is a scarcity of data on the amount and distribution of the organochlorine pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its metabolites in intermediate and deep ocean water masses. Here, the distribution and inventories of DDTs in water of the Arctic shelf seas and the interior basin are presented. The occurrence of ∑DDT (0.

Observation-Based Assessment of PBDE Loads in Arctic Ocean Waters.

Little is known about the distribution of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) -also known as flame retardants- in major ocean compartments, with no reports yet for the large deep-water masses of the Arctic Ocean. Here, PBDE concentrations, congener patterns and inventories are presented for the different water masses of the pan-Arctic shelf seas and the interior basin. Seawater samples were collected onboard three cross-basin oceanographic campaigns in 2001, 2005, and 2008 following strict trace-clean protocols.

Transformation of PBDE mixtures during sediment transport and resuspension in marine environments (Gulf of Lion, NW Mediterranean Sea).

Polybromodiphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in superficial sediments from the Gulf of Lion were studied. They were largely predominated by BDE 209 (98.7% of all PBDEs) indicating that the main source of these pollutants was the commercial mixture deca-BDE.

Role of dense shelf water cascading in the transfer of organochlorine compounds to open marine waters.

Settling particles were collected by an array of sediment trap moorings deployed along the Cap de Creus (CCC) and Lacaze-Duthiers (LDC) submarine canyons and on the adjacent southern open slope (SOS) between October 2005 and October 2006. This array collected particles during common settling processes and particles transferred to deep waters by dense shelf water cascading (DSWC). Polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and its metabolites (DDTs), chlorobenzenes (CBzs)--pentachlorobenzene and hexachlorobenzene--and hexachlorocyclohexanes were analyzed in all samples.