Overall the activity concentrations of such radionuclides as 99Tc, 137Cs, 90Sr, 239+240Pu,  241Am,  226Ra and 228Ra in the Barents Sea are similar, or slightly lower than have been observed in recent years. Presently,a general tendency to decrease is indicated. for all the radionuclides.

Oil contamination may be measured as total hydrocarbon content (THC) which includes both aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. THC levels in sediments vary from below detection limit to below 20 µg/g dry weight throughout south-western and central parts of the Barents Sea, but are in the range of 50 to 70 µg/g dry weight in the areas closer to Svalbard (ibid.) in the North-Western Barents Sea.

Air

Concentrations of elementary mercury (Hg) measured at the Zeppelin observatory is at the same level as the concentrations measured in the southern part of Norway. There are episodes during spring time where levels of elementary Hg in gaseous phase decreases (Figure 4.4.7). The reason for this decrease is that light from the polar sunrise starts a chemical prosess that transform Hg to more react...

Air

Atmospheric transport is believed to be the most important transport route for volatile and semi-volatile persistent pollutants into the Arctic (AMAP 2004). In the Barents region, data on atmospheric pollution from the Zeppelin mountain atmospheric research station (Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, Norway) has shown a significant decrease in pollutants during the past decade (Figure 4.4.4).