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The rise of advanced ICT technologies has made it possible to apply low-cost sensor systems for measuring air quality in citizen science projects, including education. High school students in Norway used these sensor systems in a citizen science project to design, carry out, and evaluate their own research projects on air quality. An impact assessment framework was designed to assess the impact of these activities, considering five areas of impact: scientific, social, economic, political, and environmental. In addition, the framework also considers the transformative potential of the citizen science pilot, i.e., the degree to which the pilot can help to change, alter, or replace current systems, and the business-as-usual in one or more fields such as knowledge production or environmental protection. Data for this assessment were gathered in the form of questionnaires that the students had to complete before starting and after finalizing the pilot activities. The results showed positive impacts on learning, a pro-environmental world view, and an increase in pro-science attitudes and interest in scientific and environmental-related topics at the end of the pilot activities. Only weak impacts were measured for behavioral change. The activities showed transformative potential, which makes the student activities an example of good practice for citizen science activities on air quality with low-cost sensors.
2021
The Arctic middle atmosphere was affected by major sudden stratospheric warmings (SSW) in February 2018 and January 2019, respectively. In this article, we report for the first time the impact of these two events on the middle atmospheric nitric oxide (NO) abundance. The study is based on measurements obtained during two dedicated observation campaigns, using the Sub-Millimetre Radiometer (SMR) aboard the Odin satellite, measuring NO globally since 2003. The SSW of February 2018 was similar to other, more dynamically quiet, Arctic winters in term of NO downward transport from the upper mesosphere–lower thermosphere to lower altitudes (referred to as energetic particle precipitation indirect effect EPP-IE). On the contrary, the event of January 2019 led to one of the strongest EPP-IE cases observed within the Odin operational period. Important positive NO anomalies were indeed observed in the lower mesosphere–upper stratosphere during the three months following the SSW onset, corresponding to NO volume mixing ratios more than 50 times higher than the climatological values. These different consequences on the middle atmospheric composition are explained by very different dynamical characteristics of these two SSW events.
2021
2021
2021
This program, «Monitoring of environmental contaminants in freshwater ecosystems and single species in large Norwegian lakes”, has covered sampling and determination of environmental contaminants by analyses of organisms in an aquatic, pelagic food web of Lake Mjøsa, and in the top predator in Lake Femunden. Samples of different trophic levels, from epipelagic zooplankton to the top predator brown trout, were collected during the late stages of the growth season in 2020. In this report, the status of contamination in the food web, trends and biomagnification potential of various environmental contaminants is discussed.
Norsk institutt for vannforskning (NIVA)
2021
2021
Kunnskapsstatus for tverrfaglig klima- og miljøforskning
På oppdrag fra Klima- og miljødepartementet har vi i dette arbeidet svart ut en rekke spørsmål om tverrfaglig klima- og miljøforskning, samt noen spørsmål om transfaglig forskning. Vi har samlet inn data gjennom flere litteratursøk, intervjuer, én spørreundersøkelse, workshop mm. Alle litteratursøk dekker klima og miljøpublikasjoner uavhengig av hvor forskningen er gjort. Alle andre funn fra forskningsmiljøene er avgrenset til grunnforskning og anvendt forskning ved universitetene og forskningsinstitutt som mottar grunnfinansiering. Bruk av klima- og miljøforskning i forvaltningen og involvering av forvaltningen er avgrenset til statlig forvaltning. Det er usikkerhet i våre funn, men funnene vurderes likevel som tilstrekkelig robuste til å svare ut spørsmålene. Vi finner at bruken av begrepet tverrfaglig er mangfoldig. Et bredt antall fag og institusjoner er involvert i slik forskning og det samarbeides mest på tvers av naturvitenskap og samfunnsvitenskap. Vi har funnet at andelen klima- og miljøpublikasjoner som er tverrfaglig på tvers av minst to av naturvitenskap, samfunnsvitenskap, humaniora og rettsvitenskap, er 24 prosent. I Norge oppleves behovet for tverrfaglig klima- og miljøforskning som økende. Den viktigste driveren for økningen er samfunnsbehovene. Det forskes også mer tverrfaglig. Et globalt litteratursøk antyder imidlertid at antall tverrfaglige klima- og miljøpublikasjoner og totalt antall klima- og miljøpublikasjoner øker med omtrent samme takt slik at andelen av publikasjoner som er tverrfaglige, endres i liten grad. Monofaglig praksis er vanligere enn flerfaglig. Flerfaglighet er vanligere enn tverrfaglighet. Det oppleves å være betydelige barrierer for tverrfaglig klima- og miljøforskning. Faglige barrierer og manglende merittering for tverrfaglig forskning løftes spesielt fram, men også andre barrierer er betydelige. Det er relativt liten forskjell i opplevelse av barrierer for forskere ved universitetene og forskningsinstitutter. For transfaglig forskning peker både forvaltning og forskere på mangel på tid som en sentral barriere. Forskning på tverrfaglig og transfaglig forskning øker.
CIENS
2021
Monitoring of long-range transported air pollutants in Norway. Annual Report 2020.
This report presents results from the monitoring of atmospheric composition and deposition of air pollution in 2020, and focuses on main components in air and precipitation, particulate and gaseous phase of inorganic constituents, particulate carbonaceous matter, ground level ozone and particulate matter. The level of pollution in 2020 was generally low and this can partly be explained by special weather conditions in the first months with mostly clean, marine air from the west. The extensive restrictions on human activity in connection with the pandemic in Europe, have probably also contributed to lower levels of air pollution at the Norwegian background stations. In 2020, it was an unusual wide-spread episode during October causing high concentrations of most pollutants at all the sites.
NILU
2021
Impacts of Short-lived Climate Forcers on Arctic Climate, Air Quality, and Human Health
Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP)
2021
2021
2021
Atmospheric Supply of Nitrogen, Copper, HCB, BDE-99, SCCP and PFOS to the Baltic Sea in 2019
Norwegian Meteorological Institute
2021
Environmental pollutants in the terrestrial and urban environment 2020
Samples from the urban terrestrial environment in the Oslo area were analysed for metals and a large number of organic environmental pollutants. The selected species were earthworm, fieldfare, tawny owl, red fox and brown rat. Air- and soil-samples were also included in the study to further the understanding on sources and uptake of pollutants. A food-chain approach was used to investigate trophic magnification of the different compounds.
NILU
2021
Global environment outlook - Geo-6. Technical summary
he sixth Global Environment Outlook was launched in 2019 at the fourth UN Environment Assembly. It highlighted the ongoing damage to life and health from pollution and land degradation, and warned that zoonosis was already accounting for more than 60% of human infectious diseases. Since then the spread of COVID-19 has demonstrated the enormous challenges a global pandemic can cause for health care systems and the economy, as well as revealing potential environmental benefits of an altered lifestyle. This Technical Summary synthesizes the science and data in the GEO-6 report to make it accessible to a broad audience of policymakers, students and scientists. It demonstrates that more urgent and sustained action is required to address the degradation caused by our energy, food and waste systems and identifies a variety of transformational pathways for those seeking far-reaching policies for environmental and economic recovery.
Cambridge University Press
2021
Long-term monitoring of regulated organic chemicals, such as legacy persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), in ambient air provides valuable information about the compounds' environmental fate as well as temporal and spatial trends. This is the foundation to evaluate the effectiveness of national and international regulations for priority pollutants. Extracts of high-volume air samples, collected on glass fibre filters (GFF for particle phase) and polyurethane foam plugs (PUF for gaseous phase), for targeted analyses of legacy POPs are commonly cleaned by treatment with concentrated sulfuric acid, resulting in extracts clean from most interfering compounds and matrices that are suitable for multi-quantitative trace analysis. Such standardised methods, however, severely restrict the number of analytes for quantification and are not applicable when targeting new and emerging compounds as some may be less stable under acid treatment. Recently developed suspect and non-target screening analytical strategies (SUS and NTS, respectively) are shown to be effective evaluation tools aimed at identifying a high number of compounds of emerging concern. These strategies, combining highly sophisticated analytical technology with extensive data interpretation and statistics, are already widely accepted in environmental sciences for investigations of various environmental matrices, but their application to air samples is still very limited. In order to apply SUS and NTS for the identification of organic contaminants in air samples, an adapted and more wide-scope sample clean-up method is needed compared to the traditional method, which uses concentrated sulfuric acid. Analysis of raw air sample extracts without clean-up would generate extensive contamination of the analytical system, especially with PUF matrix-based compounds, and thus highly interfered mass spectra and detection limits which are unacceptable high for trace analysis in air samples.
In this study, a novel wide-scope sample clean-up method for high-volume air samples has been developed and applied to real high-volume air samples, which facilitates simultaneous target, suspect and non-target analyses. The scope and efficiency of the method were quantitatively evaluated with organic compounds covering a wide range of polarities (logP 2–11), including legacy POPs, brominated flame retardants (BFRs), chlorinated pesticides and currently used pesticides (CUPs). In addition, data reduction and selection strategies for SUS and NTS were developed for comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography separation with low-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometric detection (GC × GC-LRMS) data and applied to real high-volume air samples. Combination of the newly developed clean-up procedure and data treatment strategy enabled the prioritisation of over 600 compounds of interest in the particle phase (on GFF) and over 850 compounds in the gas phase (on PUF) out of over 25 000 chemical features detected in the raw dataset. Of these, 50 individual compounds were identified and confirmed with reference standards, 80 compounds were identified with a probable structure, and 774 compounds were assigned to various compound classes. In the dataset available here, 11 hitherto unknown halogenated compounds were detected. These unknown compounds were not yet listed in the available mass spectral libraries.
2021
Unexpected nascent atmospheric emissions of three ozone-depleting hydrochlorofluorocarbons
Global and regional atmospheric measurements and modeling can play key roles in discovering and quantifying unexpected nascent emissions of environmentally important substances. We focus here on three hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) that are restricted by the Montreal Protocol because of their roles in stratospheric ozone depletion. Based on measurements of archived air samples and on in situ measurements at stations of the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) network, we report global abundances, trends, and regional enhancements for HCFC-132b (CH2ClCClF2), which is newly discovered in the atmosphere, and updated results for HCFC-133a (CH2ClCF3) and HCFC-31 (CH2ClF). No purposeful end-use is known for any of these compounds. We find that HCFC-132b appeared in the atmosphere 20 y ago and that its global emissions increased to 1.1 Gg⋅y−1 by 2019. Regional top-down emission estimates for East Asia, based on high-frequency measurements for 2016–2019, account for ∼95% of the global HCFC-132b emissions and for ∼80% of the global HCFC-133a emissions of 2.3 Gg⋅y−1 during this period. Global emissions of HCFC-31 for the same period are 0.71 Gg⋅y−1. Small European emissions of HCFC-132b and HCFC-133a, found in southeastern France, ceased in early 2017 when a fluorocarbon production facility in that area closed. Although unreported emissive end-uses cannot be ruled out, all three compounds are most likely emitted as intermediate by-products in chemical production pathways. Identification of harmful emissions to the atmosphere at an early stage can guide the effective development of global and regional environmental policy.
2021
Målinger av SO2 i omgivelsene til Elkem Carbon og REC Solar. Januar 2020 – desember 2020.
På oppdrag fra Elkem Carbon AS har NILU utført målinger av SO2 i omgivelsene til Elkem Carbon og REC Solar i Vågsbygd
(Kristiansand kommune). Bedriftene ble pålagt av Miljødirektoratet å gjennomføre SO2-målinger i omgivelsesluft.
Målingene ble utført med SO2-monitor i boligområdet på Fiskåtangen (Konsul Wilds vei) og med passive SO2-prøvetakere
ved 6 steder rundt bedriftene. Rapporten dekker målinger i perioden 1. januar 2020 – 31. desember 2020.
Norske grenseverdier for luftkvalitet (SO2) ble overholdt ved Konsul Wilds vei for alle midlingsperioder krevet i
forurensningsforskriften (årsmiddel, vintermiddel, døgnmiddel og timemiddel). De mest belastede stedene i måleperioden
var Konsul Wilds vei og Fiskåveien rett sør for bedriftene.
NILU
2021
There are large knowledge gaps concerning environmental levels and fate of many organic pollutants, particularly for chemicals of emerging concern in tropical regions of the Global South. In this study, we investigated the levels of chlorinated paraffins (CPs) and dechloranes in air and soil in rural, suburban, and urban regions in and around Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Samples were also collected near the city's main municipal waste dumpsite and an electronic waste (e-waste) handling facility. In passive air samples, short chain CPs (SCCPs) dominated, with an average estimated concentration of 22 ng/m3, while medium chain CPs (MCCPs) had an average estimated concentration of 9 ng/m3. The average estimated air concentration of ∑dechloranes (Dechlorane Plus (DP) + Dechlorane 602 + Dechlorane 603) was three to four orders of magnitudes lower, 2 pg/m3. In soil samples, MCCPs dominated with an average concentration of 640 ng/g dw, followed by SCCPs with an average concentration of 330 ng/g dw, and ∑dechloranes with an average concentration of 0.9 ng/g dw. In both air and soil, DP was the dominating dechlorane compound. Urban pulses were observed for CPs and dechloranes in air and soil. CPs were in addition found in elevated levels at the municipal waste dumpsite and the e-waste handling facility, while DPs were found in elevated levels at the e-waste handling facility. This suggests that waste handling sites represent important emission sources for these pollutants. Investigations into seasonal trends and environmental fate of CPs and dechloranes showed that monsoonal rain patterns play a major role in governing air concentrations and mobility, particularly for the less volatile MCCPs and dechloranes. This study is the first to report levels of CPs in air from sub-Saharan Africa, and DP, Dechlorane 602, and Dechlorane 603 in soil from sub-Saharan Africa.
2021
Seasonal to interannual variations in the concentrations of sulfur aerosols (< 2.5 µm in diameter; non sea-salt sulfate: NSS-SO2−4; anthropogenic sulfate: Anth-SO2−4; biogenic sulfate: Bio-SO2−4; methanesulfonic acid: MSA) in the Arctic atmosphere were investigated using measurements of the chemical composition of aerosols collected at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard (78.9∘ N, 11.9∘ E) from 2015 to 2019. In all measurement years the concentration of NSS-SO2−4 was highest during the pre-bloom period and rapidly decreased towards summer. During the pre-bloom period we found a strong correlation between NSS-SO2−4 (sum of Anth-SO2−4 and Bio-SO2−4) and Anth-SO2−4. This was because more than 50 % of the NSS-SO2−4 measured during this period was Anth-SO2−4, which originated in northern Europe and was subsequently transported to the Arctic in Arctic haze. Unexpected increases in the concentration of Bio-SO2−4 aerosols (an oxidation product of dimethylsulfide: DMS) were occasionally found during the pre-bloom period. These probably originated in regions to the south (the North Atlantic Ocean and the Norwegian Sea) rather than in ocean areas in the proximity of Ny-Ålesund. Another oxidation product of DMS is MSA, and the ratio of MSA to Bio-SO2−4 is extensively used to estimate the total amount of DMS-derived aerosol particles in remote marine environments. The concentration of MSA during the pre-bloom period remained low, primarily because of the greater loss of MSA relative to Bio-SO2−4 and the suppression of condensation of gaseous MSA onto particles already present in air masses being transported northwards from distant ocean source regions (existing particles). In addition, the low light intensity during the pre-bloom period resulted in a low concentration of photochemically activated oxidant species including OH radicals and BrO; these conditions favored the oxidation pathway of DMS to Bio-SO2−4 rather than to MSA, which acted to lower the MSA concentration at Ny-Ålesund. The concentration of MSA peaked in May or June and was positively correlated with phytoplankton biomass in the Greenland and Barents seas around Svalbard. As a result, the mean ratio of MSA to the DMS-derived aerosols was low (0.09 ± 0.07) in the pre-bloom period but high (0.32 ± 0.15) in the bloom and post-bloom periods. There was large interannual variability in the ratio of MSA to Bio-SO2−4 (i.e., 0.24 ± 0.11 in 2017, 0.40 ± 0.14 in 2018, and 0.36 ± 0.14 in 2019) during the bloom and post-bloom periods. This was probably associated with changes in the chemical properties of existing particles, biological activities surrounding the observation site, and air mass transport patterns. Our results indicate that MSA is not a conservative tracer for predicting DMS-derived particles, and the contribution of MSA to the growth of newly formed particles may be much larger during the bloom and post-bloom periods than during the pre-bloom period.
2021