OASIS-Canada

Transcript:

Every spring in the Arctic, the greenhouse gas ozone and the toxic chemical mercury, which are both normally present in the North, suddenly disappear from the air along the coast of the frozen ocean.

In order to find out what causes these two polluting chemicals to vanish, Environment Canada is leading an International Polar Year Project called OASIS-Canada which stands for Ocean - Atmosphere - Sea Ice - Snowpack.

Near the town of Barrow, Alaska, an expedition team of 10 Canadian scientists led by Environment Canada’s Dr. Jan Bottenheim, is studying how these chemicals get there, how they impact the Arctic, and what consequences there will be to the ecosystem should the Arctic Ocean continue to be affected by climate change.  

In the larger environment, ground-level ozone plays an important role in helping to remove pollutants from the air. One of the things that the OASIS team thinks this research will help explain is what the long-term effects are on the air when the normal concentration of gas is greatly reduced.

High levels of mercury exposure can cause chronic health problems for both humans and wildlife. This is why part of the expedition’s work is also in trying to determine if the disappearing mercury in the air is linked to the presence of increased levels of the substance in the plants and animals that live in the Arctic.

Thanks to Dr. Bottenheim and his team of OASIS researchers, as well as the variety of other great science and technology work being done by Environment Canada each day, we may soon be able to answer some of these questions.

Perhaps then we can gain a better understanding of our far North, and the many changes it is facing.