Concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) sampled in water and snow for Lake Hazen, Nunavut Canada

The delivery of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from snowpacks into Lake Hazen, located on Ellesmere Island (Nunavut, Canada) indicates that annual atmospheric deposition is a major source of PFAS that undergo complex cycling in the High Arctic. Perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCA) in snowpacks display odd-even concentration ratios characteristic of long-range atmospheric transport and oxidation of volatile precursors. This Dataset contains the concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Arctic water and snow for Lake Hazen. Snow samples were collected from 2013-2014, water samples were collected over a time span of 2012-2015.

Citation: MacInnis, J. J., Lehnherr, I., Muir, D., St Pierre, K. A., St Louis, V. L., Spencer, C., & De Silva, A. O. (2019). Fate and Transport of Perfluoroalkyl Substances from Snowpacks into a Lake in the High Arctic of Canada. Environmental science & technology, 53(18), 10753–10762. doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b03372

Supplemental Information:

The Northern Contaminants Program (NCP, http://www.science.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_7A463DBA.html) was established in 1991 in response to concerns about human exposure to elevated levels of contaminants in wildlife species that are important to the traditional diets of northern Aboriginal peoples. Early studies found a wide variety of substances, many of which had no Arctic or Canadian sources, but which were, nevertheless, reaching unexpectedly high levels in the Arctic ecosystem.

The Canadian Cryospheric Information Network (CCIN, https://www.ccin.ca/) and the Polar Data Catalogue (PDC, https://polardata.ca/) have been developed over the past two decades through collaborative partnerships between the University of Waterloo and numerous government, university, and private organizations to provide the data and information management infrastructure for the Canadian cryospheric community. The PDC is one of Canada’s primary online sources for data and information about the Arctic and is Canada's National Antarctica Data Centre.

Datasets available for download

• View ECCC Data Mart (English)HTML
  To Download

  • More information
  • Go to resource
• View ECCC Data Mart (French)HTML
  To Download

  • More information
  • Go to resource
• NCP-Arctic-Arctique-Lake-Lac-Hazen-Snow-Neige-2...CSV
  To Download

  • More information
  • Go to resource
• NCP-Arctic-Arctique-Lake-Lac-Hazen-Water-Eau-20...CSV
  To Download

  • More information
  • Go to resource

• Arctic
• Ellesmere Island
• Environment
• Lake Hazen
• Nature and Environment
• Northern Canada
• Northern...
• Perfluoroalkyl...
• Snow Sampling
• Water Sampling
• Water quality

Additional Info

• Maturity Level 1 (46%)
• Maturity Level 2 (23%)
• Maturity Level 3 (0%)
• Maturity Level 4 (0%)
• Maturity Level 5 (0%)
• Maturity Level 6 (0%)

Field	Value
Last Updated	October 20, 2025, 03:31 (UTC)
Created	October 20, 2025, 03:31 (UTC)
Domain / Topic Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title Title for the Dataset.	Concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) sampled in water and snow for Lake Hazen, Nunavut Canada
Description A description of the dataset.	The delivery of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from snowpacks into Lake Hazen, located on Ellesmere Island (Nunavut, Canada) indicates that annual atmospheric deposition is a major source of PFAS that undergo complex cycling in the High Arctic. Perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCA) in snowpacks display odd-even concentration ratios characteristic of long-range atmospheric transport and oxidation of volatile precursors. This Dataset contains the concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Arctic water and snow for Lake Hazen. Snow samples were collected from 2013-2014, water samples were collected over a time span of 2012-2015. Citation: MacInnis, J. J., Lehnherr, I., Muir, D., St Pierre, K. A., St Louis, V. L., Spencer, C., & De Silva, A. O. (2019). Fate and Transport of Perfluoroalkyl Substances from Snowpacks into a Lake in the High Arctic of Canada. Environmental science & technology, 53(18), 10753–10762. doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b03372 Supplemental Information: The Northern Contaminants Program (NCP, http://www.science.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_7A463DBA.html) was established in 1991 in response to concerns about human exposure to elevated levels of contaminants in wildlife species that are important to the traditional diets of northern Aboriginal peoples. Early studies found a wide variety of substances, many of which had no Arctic or Canadian sources, but which were, nevertheless, reaching unexpectedly high levels in the Arctic ecosystem. The Canadian Cryospheric Information Network (CCIN, https://www.ccin.ca/) and the Polar Data Catalogue (PDC, https://polardata.ca/) have been developed over the past two decades through collaborative partnerships between the University of Waterloo and numerous government, university, and private organizations to provide the data and information management infrastructure for the Canadian cryospheric community. The PDC is one of Canada’s primary online sources for data and information about the Arctic and is Canada's National Antarctica Data Centre.
Tags / Keywords Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.	Arctic Ellesmere Island Environment Lake Hazen Nature and Environment Northern Canada Northern... Perfluoroalkyl... Snow Sampling Water Sampling Water quality
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc) File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date Published date of the dataset.	2020-03-30
Time Period Data Span (start date) Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date) End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.

Field	Value
Access category Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
License License used to access the dataset.	Open Government Licence - Canada
Limits on use Limits on use of data.
Location Location of the dataset.	https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/1d491fbe-35a0-4331-a19e-1cee16bd7739
Data Service Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner Owner of the dataset.	Environment and Climate Change Canada | Environnement et Changement climatique Canada
Contact Point Who to contact regarding access?
Contact Point Email The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email Email of the publisher.
Author Author of the dataset.
Author Email Email of the author.
Accessed At Date the data and metadata was accessed.

Field	Value
Identifier Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type Platform type of the source portal.

Field	Value
Version Version of the datatset	None
Source Source of the dataset.	None
Version notes Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions) Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.

Field	Value
Indigenous Community Permission Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about Indigenous communities from which data is derived.

Field	Value
Number of data rows If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

Please login or register to comment.