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, o rganophosphates and organochlorines) was carried out in the Bering and Chukchi marine ecosystems in the summer of 1993, Chlorpyrifos and tra ce levels of endosulphan were the most frequently identified contamina nts in seawater, chlorpyrifos and atrazine were found in marine ice, a nd chlorathalonil and trifluralin mere found in surface microlayer sam ples, Concentrations of chlorpyrifos were highest (170 ng l(-1)) in ma rine ice and higher in seawater (19-67 ng l(-1)) at locations which we re closest to the ice edge, Endosulphan was found as a widely distribu ted currently used pesticide in the polar atmosphere, The greatest con centration of any one single agrochemical was trifluralin (1.15 mu g l (-1)) in a Bristol Bay surface microlayer sample, Arctic marine fog wa s sampled and for the first time, several currently-used pesticides (c hlorpyrifos, trifluralin, metolachlor, chlorothalonil, terbufos and en dosulphan) were detected at concentrations several times higher than i n adjacent waters or ice. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd