Levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the Antarctic atmosphere over time (1980 to 2021) and estimation of their atmospheric half-lives

Luarte, Thais; Gómez-Aburto, Victoria A.; Poblete-Castro, Ignacio; Castro-Nallar, Eduardo; Huneeus, Nicolas; Molina-Montenegro, Marco; Egas, Claudia; Azcune, Germán; Pérez-Parada, Andrés; Lohmann, Rainier; Bohlin-Nizzetto, Pernilla; Dachs, Jordi; Bengtson-Nash, Susan; Chiang, Gustavo; Pozo, Karla; Galbán-Malagón, Cristóbal J.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8103-2023

Articles | Volume 23, issue 14

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8103-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8103-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 23, issue 14

Research article

|

19 Jul 2023

Research article |

| 19 Jul 2023

Levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the Antarctic atmosphere over time (1980 to 2021) and estimation of their atmospheric half-lives

Thais Luarte, Victoria A. Gómez-Aburto, Ignacio Poblete-Castro, Eduardo Castro-Nallar, Nicolas Huneeus, Marco Molina-Montenegro, Claudia Egas, Germán Azcune, Andrés Pérez-Parada, Rainier Lohmann, Pernilla Bohlin-Nizzetto, Jordi Dachs, Susan Bengtson-Nash, Gustavo Chiang, Karla Pozo, and Cristóbal J. Galbán-Malagón

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Preprint (discussion started on 02 Feb 2023)
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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1:
'Comment on acp-2023-25', Anonymous Referee #1, 25 Feb 2023

Thank you for chosing me as a reviewer and please find my comments in the document attached.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2023-25-RC1
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Cristóbal Galbán-Malagón, 24 Apr 2023
  
  Point-by-point responses to the reviewer's comments can be found in the attached file.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2023-25-AC1
RC2:
'Comment on acp-2023-25', Anonymous Referee #2, 28 Feb 2023

General Comments
This manuscript reviewed literatures for the atmospheric concentrations of several classes POPs in the Antarctica from 1988 to 2021. Temporal trends were evaluated for DDT, DDD PCBs, HCHs and HCB according to the effective ban of SC. Atmospheric half-life times of these POPs were estimated using characteristic decreasing times (TD). The results showed that the ban of SC significantly influenced the levels of HCHs and PCBs, while HCB showed increasing concentrations in some publications, and longer half-life time than other POPs. The impact of climate change on the POPs levels was discussed. Increasing temperature can cause remission of POPs from the surface, and other biogeochemical processes. Overall, the manuscript have been well documented, and addressed to the emerging concern for POPs in the Antarctic. I would suggest it can be accepted with some revision.
Specific comments
L116-118, including only articles written in English; excluding from the analysis references that do not refer to a good quality assurance and quality control during the chemical analysis, or if the levels of field blanks were not reported.
Please give more detail description for “good quality assurance and quality control during the chemical analysis” applied for literature selection
L121-122, data obtained from active and passive sampling
As data from both active and passive sampling were collected in this work, although the authors stated no clear variation between these two data sets, I guess it is worth to compare the data between active sampling and passive sampling in this review, and give a suggestion for future monitoring program.
L189-197, spatial distribution of HCB, a-HCH, b-HCH, and g-HCH isomers was discussed in this section. Please give more discussion for the significant spatial differences of HCB and a-HCHs between East and West Antarctica.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2023-25-RC2
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Cristóbal Galbán-Malagón, 24 Apr 2023
  
  Point-by-point responses to the reviewer's comments can be found in the attached file.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2023-25-AC2

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

AR by Cristóbal Galbán-Malagón on behalf of the Authors (24 Apr 2023) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (26 Apr 2023) by Ralf Ebinghaus

AR by Cristóbal Galbán-Malagón on behalf of the Authors (02 May 2023) Manuscript

Post-review adjustments

AA: Author's adjustment | EA: Editor approval

AA by Cristóbal Galbán-Malagón on behalf of the Authors (10 Jul 2023) Author's adjustment Manuscript

EA: Adjustments approved (13 Jul 2023) by Ralf Ebinghaus

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Short summary

In the last 40 years, different research groups have reported on the atmospheric concentrations of persistent organic pollutants in Antarctica. In the present work, we make a compilation to understand the historical trends and estimate the atmospheric half-life of each compound. Of the compounds studied, HCB was the only one that showed no clear trend, while the rest of the studied compounds showed a significant decrease over time. This is consistent with results for polar and sub-polar zones.