title: Historical alpha-HCH budget in the Arctic Ocean: the Arctic Mass Balance Box Model (AMBBM).
abstract: An Arctic Mass Balance Box Model (AMBBM) has been developed to calculate a sequential historical alpha-hexachlorocyclohexane (alpha-HCH) budget in the Arctic Ocean from its introduction in the 1940s up to the present. The AMBBM is created in the context of the Arctic as a receptor, and has three major components: the air concentration module, the loading from Arctic river module and the transport/transformation module. The results of the model provide a more complete depiction of the behavior of alpha-HCH within the Arctic Ocean. Model output includes annual concentrations in Arctic air and water, annual alpha-HCH loading to, removal from the Arctic Ocean and annual cumulative burden of alpha-HCH in the Arctic waters from 1945 to 2000. Our model results compare well with published data in the 1980s and 1990s and show that the alpha-HCH burden in the Arctic Ocean started to accumulate in the early 1940s and reached the highest value of 6670 t in 1982, 1 year before China banned the use of technical HCH. Since then the burden of alpha-HCH in Arctic waters has decreased quickly by an average annual rate of approximately 270 ty(-1) during the 1990s, decreasing from 4220 t in 1990 to 1550 t in 2000. The complete elimination of alpha-HCH from Arctic waters would require another two decades. The total loading between 1945 and 2000 was 27700 t accounting for approximately 0.6% of total global alpha-HCH emission from agricultural land to the atmosphere. Differences in loadings of alpha-HCH to the North American Arctic Ocean and Eurasian Arctic Ocean are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Meteorological Service of Canada, Environment Canada, 4905 Dufferin Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3H 5T4. yi-fan.li@ec.gc.ca
authors.forename: Y F
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Macdonald
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hung
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Venkatesh
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000392:Air Movements; D000393:Air Pollutants; D001110:Arctic Regions; D002273:Carcinogens / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D001556:Hexachlorocyclohexane / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D014871:Water Microbiology; D014872:Water Movements; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000266:history*
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D002273:Carcinogens; C040534:alpha-hexachlorocyclohexane; D001556:Hexachlorocyclohexane