The fate of metal elements in arctic and sub-arctic areas: ecosystems and northern populations exposure

Informations

Funding country

France

Acronym

Arctic Metals

URL

-

Start date

1/1/2012

End date

-

Budget

549,986 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

Our knowledge of the behavior of metals in the environment is critical for a number of social issues, namely economic, regulations, health of living organisms and humans, traditional way of life. The Arctic Metals project aims at developing tools (speciation, isotopes) to assess metals sources, mobility and reactivity in "remote" areas of the Arctic and sub-arctic AND to determine their bio-availability for northern biota and populations. The anthropogenic pressure, through mining exploration and exploitation in the Arctic and sub-arctic is high and will increase over the next decades. Thus, Arctic and sub-arctic living biota and population are exposed to several metallic pollutants. The estimation of "toxicity" pass through our knowledge of levels, chemical forms, reactivity and bio-availability of metals in the environment. The Arctic Metals project will focus on metal accumulation due to diffuse pollution, which covers millions of km2 and is more difficult to appreciate than pollution from a punctual source (e.g. smelters). In a changing environment, re-mobilization of metals of both anthropogenic and natural origin may yield toxic exposure for biota and human populations. To achieve our objectives, we defined 4 major tasks: 1- the project coordination will comprise a Steering Committee and will be dedicated to the organization of project and international meetings, project logistics (including field missions), progress reports, setting up training, data base and diffusion of information; 2- laboratory experiments will document conditions that govern reactions between metals and various organic matters, including chemical form transformations and isotopic fractionations; 3- metals biogeochemical cycle within various compartments of selected lake ecosystems in northern Canada and Siberia (Russia) will be assess through chemical, speciation, isotopic data; 4- the metal exposure of northern populations will be addressed through the analyses of the isotopic composition (Hg, Se) of country food and human blood from a "sample bank" covering populations living in arctic and sub-arctic areas in Canada. Ambitious results are expected: i- evaluating the source of metals present in aquatic ecosystems of northern areas; ii- understanding the impact of metals on eco-geo-systems in relation to biodiversity by developing tools that will highlight reactions between metals and organic matter; iii- tracing the source of metals in human populations by testing the potential of isotope tracing for Hg and Se in blood samples; iv- developing a chemical and isotopic data base and chemodynamic models for various metals in arctic and sub-arctic aquatic environments. The project also aims at training several postdoctoral, master and PhD students to state of the art methods applied to environmental studied. The project data and results will be available to the northern population, to the general public and to the stakeholders through a project web site with key results translated into French, English and Inuktituk.