title: Water quality of arctic rivers in Finnish Lapland.
abstract: The water quality monitoring data of eight rivers situated in the Finnish Lapland above the Arctic Circle were investigated. These rivers are icebound annually for about 200 days. They belong to the International River Basin District founded according to the European Union Water Framework Directive and shared with Norway. They are part of the European river monitoring network that includes some 3,400 river sites. The water quality monitoring datasets available varied between the rivers, the longest comprising the period 1975-2003 and the shortest 1989-2003. For each river, annual medians of eight water quality variables were calculated. In addition, medians and fifth and 95th percentiles were calculated for the whole observation periods. The medians indicated good river water quality in comparison to other national or foreign rivers. However, the river water quality oscillated widely. Some rivers were in practice in pristine state, whereas some showed slight human impacts, e.g., occasional high values of hygienic indicator bacteria.
authors.affiliation: Finnish Environment Institute, Mechelininkatu 34 a, P.O. Box 140, 00251, Helsinki, Finland. jorma.niemi@ymparisto.fi
authors.forename: Jorma
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Niemi
mesh_terms: D001110:Arctic Regions; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005387:Finland; D005843:Geography; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D009584:Nitrogen