Quantifying the Impact of Local and Distal Aeolian Industrial Pollutants to the Foxfonna Ice Cap, Svalbard, Norway

Airborne industrial pollutants may be a critical contributor to pollution at high latitudes; however, these contaminants and their impact on glacial systems are poorly constrained. While glaciers act as a sink for both physical and chemical atmospheric pollutants, the addition of dark industrial particulates to glacier ice and snow can decrease albedo and accelerate glacier melt, driving contaminant flux from terrestrial to oceanic sinks (Goelles et al. 2015). This study aims to quantify the amount of non-sea salt ions trapped in the Foxfonna ice cap of the Svalbard Archipelago and to constrain the influence of aeolian pollutants from local and distal sources. The summit of Foxfonna sits 5 km from the active coal mine Gruve 7, which contributes local pollutants (Khan et al. 2017a). Distal contaminants are sourced from industrial sites in Europe and Russia. Samples were taken from the surface snow, vertical ice coring, and horizontal ice coring tactics. Results from the vertical cores are still being processed. Samples were filtered using pre-rinsed 0.45μm glass microfiber paper and analyzed for major anions and cations using a Dionex IC3000 Ion Chromatagraph. Chemistry from the horizontal ice core shows abundant sea salt aerosols. Non-sea salt sulfate ranges from zero to 0.7 mg/L. Nitrate and bromide concentrations were below detection limits. Surface snow was generally more acidic (mean = 5.26) than snow sampled from horizontal cores (mean= 5.52). The average conductance for all samples was 9.49 μS/cm. The low concentrations of non-sea salt ions indicates little influence of industrial pollutants from local or distal pollutants in seasonal glacier snow or ice, potentially due to local wind patterns that direct contaminants away from the ice cap (unis.no, 2019). Although Khan et al. (2017a) found lower pollutant concentrations in areas above the mine towards Foxfonna than in areas directly surrounding the coal mine, the data in this study are still lower than expected considering their proximity to the mine. Notably, highly variable pollutant concentrations have been found by both Khan et al. (2017b) and Björkman et al. (2013) depending on distance from pollutant sources. Analysis of refractory black carbon and low-concentration ions is necessary to quantitatively distinguish local pollutant sources to Foxfonna.