Abundance and Distribution of Organic Pollutants in Soils and Sediments of Mt. Vechernyaya, East Antarctica

Abstract This study aims to determine the abundance and distribution of organic pollutants in the coastal areas of Mt. Vechernyaya (Enderby Land, East Antarctica). For this purpose, soil and sediment samples were collected from the vicinity of the old Soviet field base and lakes. The field studies were conducted within the 14th Belarusian Antarctic Expedition between January and February 2022. The collected samples were analyzed for 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), 7 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), and 11 organochlorine pesticides (OCP) by GC–MS/MS. Particle size distributions and total organic carbon levels of the samples were determined to evaluate the measured pollutant concentrations. The total PAH, PCB and OCP levels measured in the samples were 6.0–92 µg/kg, 25–422 ng/kg and 2.3–1383 ng/kg, respectively. The results pointed out petrogenic PAH sources for lake sediment while pyrolytic sources were estimated for soil samples due to the use of fossil fuels in generators. While detected PCBs may originate from local sources due to legacy use, OCPs have been suggested to reach from the mainland by long-range atmospheric transport. The measured levels will provide a baseline which will help to monitor possible future changes in the region.