The effects of airborne emissions from the Pechenganickel smelters on water quality and littoral fish communities of small watercourses in the joint Finnish, Norwegian and Russian border area

Appendix 11/15 of the publication "State of the environment in the Norwegian, Finnish and Russian border area 2007" (The Finnish Environment 6/2007)

Screening studies of POP levels in bottom sediments from selected lakes in the Paz watercourse

Appendix 5/15 of the publication "State of the environment in the Norwegian, Finnish and Russian border area 2007" (The Finnish Environment 6/2007)

Environmental monitoring of fish in the Paz watercourse

Appendix 7/15 of the publication "State of the environment in the Norwegian, Finnish and Russian border area 2007" (The Finnish Environment 6/2007)

Screening studies of POP levels in fish from selected lakes in the Paz watercourse

Appendix 8/15 of the publication "State of the environment in the Norwegian, Finnish and Russian border area 2007" (The Finnish Environment 6/2007)

State of fish populations in small forest lakes in the Norwegian, Finnish and Russian area

Appendix 9/15 of the publication "State of the environment in the Norwegian, Finnish and Russian border area 2007" (The Finnish Environment 6/2007)

Detection of tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate and other organophosphorous compounds in Arctic rivers

The flame-retardant tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate (TDBrPP) was in the 1970s banned for uses in textiles that may be in contact with the skin, owing to strong suspicions that the substance was a human carcinogen. The substance is looked for but rarely detected in samples from the built and natural environments, but there are indications that TDBrPP is still in use. Here, we report the measurement of a polymer-water partition coefficient (Kpw) for two types of silicone rubber (SR), allowing quantitative estimation of freely dissolved concentrations of TDBrPP by passive sampling in water. We found levels of 100 to 200 pg/L in two Arctic rivers that were sampled during a 2014–2015 survey of contamination using passive samplers in Norwegian and Russian rivers draining into the Barents Sea. We also report the widespread presence of other organophosphorus flame retardants in this survey of eight rivers that drain into the Barents Sea.acceptedVersio

Diversity and distribution of European whitefish (<i>Coregonus lavaretus</i>) in the watercourses of Murmansk region

European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) is a highly polymorphic species, but the wider scale diversity and distribution of sympatric morphs in subarctic lakes of northwestern Russia has not been recently studied and analyzed. The aim of the present study was to investigate diversity and distribution of whitefish morphs in different sized lakes and watercourses of Murmansk region. Our study of the water bodies in four major river basins of Murmansk region revealed the presence of two whitefish morphs: sparsely rakered (sr) and medium rakered (mr). The mr morph is less common and observed only alongside the sr whitefish. In general, in sr whitefish the number of gill rakers ranges between 15 and 31, and in mr whitefish between 27 and 44. Among whitefishes with 27 to 31 gill rakers, both sr and mr morphs were observed and distinguishable by the shape of the rakers. In the studied sr whitefish populations, relatively long and short rakered whitefish morphs were found. In Lake Kuetsyarvi (Pasvik River basin), the sr and mr whitefish formed additional slow- and fast-growing ecological morphs. The four whitefish morphs in Lake Kuetsyarvi specialize to different ecological niches correlating with morphological and behavioral differences. The observed diversity and distribution of whitefish in the Murmansk region requires genetic studies of the population to assess the origins of divergence

Detection of tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate and other organophosphorous compounds in Arctic rivers

The flame-retardant tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate (TDBrPP) was in the 1970s banned for uses in textiles that may be in contact with the skin, owing to strong suspicions that the substance was a human carcinogen. The substance is looked for but rarely detected in samples from the built and natural environments, but there are indications that TDBrPP is still in use. Here, we report the measurement of a polymer-water partition coefficient (Kpw) for two types of silicone rubber (SR), allowing quantitative estimation of freely dissolved concentrations of TDBrPP by passive sampling in water. We found levels of 100 to 200 pg/L in two Arctic rivers that were sampled during a 2014–2015 survey of contamination using passive samplers in Norwegian and Russian rivers draining into the Barents Sea. We also report the widespread presence of other organophosphorus flame retardants in this survey of eight rivers that drain into the Barents Sea

Review and application of Russian and Norwegian methods for measuring and estimating riverine inputs of heavy metals to the Barents Sea

This report presents the results from the Norwegian-Russian collaboration project NordRID project, which was carried out from December 2011 to December 2013. Four institutions have been involved; INEP and IO RAS from the Russian side and Akvaplan-NIVA and NIVA from the Norwegian side. The main purpose of the project has been to review Russian and Norwegian methods for measuring and estimating riverine inputs of heavy metals to the Barents Sea. The report gives an overview of the most common methods applied for monitoring and calculating riverine inputs of heavy metals. INEP and IO-RAS have provided both meta-data and to some extent also real data for a number of rivers draining from the Kola and Arkhangelsk area, respectively. Two pilot studies with passive sampling techniques were performed as part of the project; one with DGTs (Diffusion Gradient in Thin-films) for detection of metals, and one with passive samplers for detection of hydrophobic contaminants. Two bilateral project meetings/workshops have been carried out during the project (at Svanhovd and in Oslo). The report contains recommendations for future work based on the studies and experiences made from the project

Ontogenetic niche shifts and resource partitioning in a subarctic piscivorous fish guild

The feeding ecology of three piscivorous fish species (perch (Perca fluviatilis), pike (Esox lucius) and burbot (Lota lota)), was studied in the subarctic Pasvik watercourse (69 ° N), northern Norway and Russia. All three species primarily occupied the benthic habitats in the watercourse. Perch and burbot exhibited distinct ontogenetic niche shifts in food resource use, perch changing from a dominance of zooplankton to zoobenthos to fish, and burbot from zoobenthos to fish. Fish prey dominated the diet of all the investigated size-classes of pike, but small-sized pike (Coregonus lavaretus) was the dominant prey of pike and large-sized burbot and perch. Nine-spined sticklebacks (Pungitius pungitius) was also an important prey and appeared to be a dietary stepping-stone enhancing the transition from invertebrate feeding to consumption of large-sized whitefish prey for all three predators. A cluster analysis separated the different size groups of the three predator species into five functional feeding groups, most of them containing two or all three species. Within these feeding groups, and especially among the piscivorous size-classes, there was a strong and significant interspecific overlap in prey selection, and the dietary similarities between the species were in general much larger than the intraspecific similarities between ontogenetic stages. All three piscivorous species are important top predators in the aquatic food web of the watercourse, and their ontogenetic diet shifts and resource partitioning patterns generate a substantial food web complexity in this subarctic ecosystem