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The purpose of this study is to examine trends over time of mercury and other trace elements, as well as legacy and new persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in landlocked Arctic char collected annually from lakes near the community of Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island (Amituk, Char, North, Small, and Resolute) and in Lake Hazen in Quttinirpaaq National Park on Ellesmere Island. The project is also examining links between climate warming and increases or decreases in mercury concentrations in landlocked char. Sampling of water and Arctic char was aided by local people between 2005 and 2007. Many scientific publications have been produced from this project, and results have been discussed in the Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report III (2013): Persistent Organic Pollutants in Canada's North, Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report III (2012): Mercury in Canada’s North, and the Synopsis of Research Conducted under the 2015–2016 and 2014-2015 Northern Contaminants Program.

Temporal trends and climate related parameters affecting the fate of legacy persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were examined in landlocked Arctic char from four lakes in the Canadian Arctic. Among biological parameters, lipid content was a key factor explaining the concentration of most POPs in Arctic char. Legacy PCBs and OCPs generally showed declining trends of concentrations in Arctic char, consistent with past restriction on uses and emissions of POPs. However, increases in lake primary productivity (measured as chlorophyll a) exerted a dilution effect on POPs concentrations in Arctic char.

Across the Canadian North, Arctic Char, Salvelinus alpinus, are culturally important and critical for maintaining subsistence lifestyles and ensuring food security for Inuit. Arctic Char also support economic development initiatives in many Arctic communities through the establishment of coastal and inland commercial char fisheries. The Halokvik River, located near the community of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, has supported a commercial fishery for anadromous Arctic Char since the late 1960s. The sustainable management of this fishery, however, remains challenging given the lack of biological data on Arctic Char from this system and the limited information on abundance and biomass needed for resolving sustainable rates of exploitation.

Commercial and exploratory fisheries for Arctic Char, Salvelinus alpinus, provide significant economic opportunities for Nunavummiut in several Nunavut communities. Having an accurate understanding of the weight of the Arctic Char that are harvested is important for tracking harvest and for understanding how biological parameters may be changing over time as a result of exploitation and/or climactic and environmental changes. Unfortunately, most fish enter the processing plants as dressed (gills and viscera removed) and therefore conversion factors have to be applied to reconcile whole (round) weight from dressed weight. Here, we provide an updated conversion factor based on linear regression for Arctic Char from the Halokvik River (locally known as 30 Mile) near the community of Cambridge Bay.

This dataset contains 2005 concentrations of total mercury (THg), gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), methylated mercury, dimethyl mercury (DMHg) in the water column of the Canadian Arctic. Mercury in the Arctic is an important environmental and human health issue. The reliance of Northern peoples on traditional foods, such as marine mammals, for subsistence means that they are particularly at risk from mercury exposure. Mercury concentrations on biological organisms have increased since the onset of the industrial age and are controlled by a combination of abiotic factors, food web dynamics and structure, as well as animal behavior.

Recent and historical deposition of mercury (Hg) are examined over a broad geographic area from southwestern Northwest Territories to Labrador and from the U.S. Northeast to northern Ellesmere Island using dated sediment cores from 50 lakes (18 in midlatitudes (41-50 degrees North), 14 subarctic (51-64 degrees North) and 18 in the Arctic (65-83 degrees North)). Objectives were to quantify latitudinal and longitudinal trends of anthropogenic mercury deposition in eastern and northern North America, to investigate variations in mercury deposition, to examine relationships with lake area, catchment/lake area ratio and sedimentation rates, and to compare results with model predictions. Distinct increases of mercury over time were observed in 76% of Arctic, 86% of subarctic and 100% of midlatitude cores. Subsurface maxima in mercury depositional fluxes were observed in only 28% of midlatitude lakes and 18% of arctic lakes, indicating little recent reduction of inputs.

This dataset contains concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in seawater sampled in various locations in the Arctic ranging from 2005-2008. Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are ubiquitous contaminants of marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments, including remote arctic wildlife. Slow, and long-range oceanic transport from source regions in the northern hemisphere is hypothesized to be among the major pathways contributing to PFAA contamination in remote marine environments. The Arctic Ocean is influenced by Pacific and Atlantic seawater as well as riverine outflows.

The concentrations of contaminants in seawater influence what is detected in marine mammals and seabirds and levels and time trends of the contaminants in the ocean has been identified as a knowledge gap by the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP). Samples were analyzed for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) including brominated flame retardants (BFRs), perfluorinated substances and mercury. Repeated sampling at the same location and time of year will help develop temporal trend information for contaminants seawater. Supplemental Information

The Northern Contaminants Program(NCP, http://www.science.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_7A463DBA.html) was established in 1991 in response to concerns about human exposure to elevated levels of contaminants in wildlife species that are important to the traditional diets of northern Aboriginal peoples.

This dataset contains the ambient dissolved concentrations of organophosphate esters (OPEs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in North Atlantic Ocean (Greenland Sea) as well as a summary of the passive polyethylene samplers (PEs) deployed. Organophosphate esters (OPEs) have been found in remote environments at unexpectedly high concentrations, but very few measurements of OPE concentrations in seawater are available, and non are available in subsurface seawater. Passive polyethylene samplers (PEs) deployed on deep-water moorings in the Fram Strait and in surface waters of Canadian Arctic lakes and coastal sites were analyzed for a suite of common OPEs. Organophosphate esters are poorly understood contaminants in remote marine environments.

Measurements of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM) and particulate bound mercury on PM2.5 (referred to as PBM2.5) were collected by Environment and Climate Change Canada from August to September 2013 at the Wood Buffalo Environmental Association (WBEA) Air Monitoring Station (AMS) 13 – Fort McKay South, and at WBEA AMS 4 – Buffalo Viewpoint. Monitoring resumed at WBEA AMS 13 in September 2014 with two speciated mercury instruments and is ongoing. One speciated mercury instrument monitors GEM, GOM, and PBM2.5; the second speciated mercury instrument monitors GEM, GOM, and mercury on PM10 (referred to as PBM10). These data are the first atmospheric speciated mercury measurements to be reported in the oil sands region.