{"id":117374,"date":"2026-09-11T17:03:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/publikasjoner\/elucidation-of-contamination-sources-for-poly-and-perfluoroalkyl-substances-pfass-on-svalbard-norwegian-arctic\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T17:03:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T15:03:30","slug":"elucidation-of-contamination-sources-for-poly-and-perfluoroalkyl-substances-pfass-on-svalbard-norwegian-arctic","status":"publish","type":"nva_publication","link":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/publications\/elucidation-of-contamination-sources-for-poly-and-perfluoroalkyl-substances-pfass-on-svalbard-norwegian-arctic\/","title":{"rendered":"Elucidation of contamination sources for poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) on Svalbard (Norwegian Arctic)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A combination of local (i.e. firefighting training facilities) and remote sources (i.e., long-range transport) are assumed to be responsible for the occurrence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in Svalbard (Norwegian Arctic). However, no systematic elucidation of local PFASs sources have been conducted yet. Therefore, a survey was performed aiming at identifying local PFASs pollution sources on the island of Spitsbergen (Svalbard, Norway). Soil, fresh water (lake, draining rivers), sea water, melt-water run-off, surface snow and coastal sediment samples were collected from Longyearbyen (Norwegian mining town), Ny-\u00c5lesund (research facility) and the Lake Linn\u00e9vatnet area (background site) during several campaigns (2014-2016) and analysed for 14 individual target PFASs. For  background site (Linn\u00e9vatnet area, sampling during April to June 2015), \u2211PFAS levels ranged from 0.4 \u2013 4 ng\/L in surface lake water (n = 20). PFAS in melt water from the contributing glaciers showed similar concentrations (~4 ng\/L, n = 2). The short chain perfluorobutanoate (PFBA) was predominant in lake water (60-80% of the \u2211PFASs), meltwater (20-30 %) and run-off water (40 %). Long range transport is assumed to be the major PFAS source.  In Longyearbyen, 5 water samples (i.e. 2 seawater, 3 run-off) were collected near the local firefighting training site (FFTS) in November 2014 and June 2015, respectively. The highest PFAS levels were found in FFTS melt water run-off (118 ng\/L). PFOS was the most abundant compound in the FFTS meltwater run-off (53 \u2013 58 %  PFASs). At the research station Ny-\u00c5lesund, sea water (n = 6), soil (n = 9) and fresh water (n = 10) were collected in June 2016. Low \u2211PFAS concentrations were determined for sea water (5 &#8211; 6 ng\/L), whereas high \u2211PFAS concentrations were found in run-off water (113 \u2013 119 ng\/L) and soil (211 \u2013 800 ng\/g dry weight (dw)) collected close to the local FFTS. In addition, high \u2211PFAS levels (127 ng\/L) were also found in fresh water from lake Solvatnet close to  former sewage treatment facility. Overall, at both FFTS affected sites (soil, water), PFOS was the most abundant compound (60 \u2013 69% of \u2211PFASs). FFTS and landfill locations were identified as major PFASs sources for Svalbard settlements. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","_id":"","_status":"PUBLISHED","_sync_date":"2026-09-11 14:36:33","footnotes":""},"nva_tax_category":[1099],"class_list":["post-117374","nva_publication","type-nva_publication","status-publish","hentry","nva_tax_category-scientific-journal-publication"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nva_publication\/117374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nva_publication"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/nva_publication"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nva_publication\/117374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"nva_tax_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nva_tax_category?post=117374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}