AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Volume 11 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.3233/AJW-2014-11_1_09
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Simulation of Organic Pollutants: First Step towards an Adaptation to the Malacca Strait

Bernhard Mayer1* Thomas Pohlmann1
Show Less
1 Institute of Oceanography, University of Hamburg, Bundesstr. 53, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
AJWEP 2014, 11(1), 75–86; https://doi.org/10.3233/AJW-2014-11_1_09
Submitted: 13 September 2013 | Accepted: 11 October 2013 | Published: 1 January 2014
© 2014 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

For the simulation of the transport of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), a set of numerical models has been adapted and applied to the Malacca Strait and the adjacent South China Sea and Java Sea. As a first step, a model experiment, namely input of POPs into model region only via rivers, was performed, because realistic input data regarding concentrations, sources and sinks of POPs for the marine environment as well as different other parameters responsible for the fate of POPs in the ocean were not yet available. Firstly, a numerical hydrodynamical model has been applied to the region of interest to simulate the hydrological situations as realistically as possible. Secondly, a numerical model for the fate and transport of POPs has been run on the basis of the hydrodynamical model results to simulate the dispersal of two differently behaving POPs, i.e., γ-HCH and PCB 153, from river input only. It is shown that only a clear seasonal but hardly annual variation is present in the model results for the currents and for the total POP concentrations. Despite permanent riverine input, the seasonal pattern of total POP concentration in water repeats in the simulation results year after year without further accumulation indicating that a quasi-steady state has been reached. Tidal mixing leads to vertically homogeneous concentrations except in deeper areas of northern Malacca Strait. Furthermore, the concentration distributions of PCB 153 in water show similar patterns but lower values than γ-HCH.

Keywords
Malacca Strait
circulation
persistent organic pollutants POPs
PCB 153
-HCH
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
References

ARGE Elbe (2003, 2005, 2007, 2008). Gewässergüteberichte der Elbe 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007. Arbeitsgemeinschaft für die Reinhaltung der Elbe, Germany. (Reports on the quality of the water of the Elbe River, in German language)

Asdak, C., Jarvis, P.G. and P.V. Gardingen (1998). Evaporation of intercepted precipitation based on an energy balance in unlogged and logged forest areas of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 92(3): 173-180.

Backhaus, J.O. (1985). A three-dimensional model for the simulation of shelf sea dynamics. Deutsche Hydro- graphische Zeitschrift, 38: 165-187.

Boyer, T., Levitus, S., Garcia, H., Locarnini, R., Stephens, C. and J. Antonov (2005). Objective analyses of annual, seasonal, and monthly temperature and salinity for the world ocean on a 0.25° grid. International Journal of Climatology, 25: 931-945.

Gayer, G., Dick, S., Pleskachevsky, A. and W. Rosenthal (2006). Numerical modeling of suspended matter transport in the North Sea. Ocean Dynamics, 56: 62-77, DOI 10.1007/s10236-006-0070-5.

Gebco-Team (2003). User guide to the centenary edition of the gebco digital atlas and its data set. Technical
report, Natural Environment Research Council, United Kingdom.

Gong, S.L., Huang, P., Zhao, T.L., Sahsuvar, L., Barrie, L.A., Kaminski, J.W., Li, Y.F. and T. Niu (2007). GEM/ POPs: A global 3-D dynamic model for semi-volatile persistent organic pollutants – Part 1: Model description and evaluations of air concentrations. Atmos. Chem. Phys.,7: 4001-4013.

Guglielmo, F., Lammel, G. and E. Maier-Reimer (2009). Global environmental cycling of gamma-HCH and DDT in the 1980s – A study using a coupled atmosphere and ocean general circulation model. Chemosphere, 76(11): 1509-1517.

Huang, P., Gong, S.L., Zhao, T.L., Neary, L. and L.A. Barrie (2007). GEM/POPs: A global 3-D dynamic model for semi-volatile persistent organic pollutants – Part 2: Global transports and budgets of PCBs. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 7: 4015-4025.

Ilyina, T., Pohlmann, T., Lammel, G. and J. Sündermann (2006). A fate and transport ocean model for persistent organic pollutants and its application to the north sea. Journal of Marine Systems, 63: 1-19.

Jungclaus, J.H., Botzet, M., Haak, H., Keenlyside, N., Luo,
J.-J., Latif, M., Marotzke, J., Mikolajewicz, U. and E. Roeckner (2006). Ocean circulation and tropical variability in the coupled model echam5/mpi-om. Journal of Climate,19: 3952-3972.

Kalnay, E. and Coauthors (1996). The ncep/ncar reanalysis 40-year project. Bulletin American Meteorology Society,77: 437-471.

Levitus, S. (1982). Climatological atlas of the world ocean. NOAA Prof. Pap., 13: 922-935.

Marsland, S.J., Haak, H., Jungclaus, J.H., Latif, M. and F. Röske (2003). The max-planck-institute global ocean/sea ice model with orthogonal curvilinear coordinates. Ocean Modelling, 5: 91-127.

Mayer, B., Damm, P.E., Pohlmann, T. and S. Rizal (2010). What is driving the ITF? An illumination of the Indonesian through flow with a numerical nested model system. Dynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans, 50: 301-312.

NOAA (1988). Data announcement 88-mgg-02, digital relief of the surface of the earth. Technical report, NOAA, National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, Colorado.

O’Driscoll, K., Mayer, B., Ilyina, T. and T. Pohlmann (2013). Modeling the cycling of persistent organic pollutants in the North Sea system: Fluxes, loading, seasonality, trends. Journal of Marine Systems, 111-112: 69-82.

Pang, W.-C. and P. Tkalich (2003). Modeling tidal and monsoon driven currents in the Singapore Strait. Singapore Maritime & Port Journal, 151-162.

Pohlmann, T. (1996). Predicting the thermocline in a circulation model of the north sea, Part 1: Model description, calibration and verification. Continental Shelf Research, 16: 131-146.

Pohlmann, T. (2006). A meso-scale model of the central and southern north sea: Consequences of an improved resolution. Continental Shelf Research, 26: 2367-2385.

Rizal, S., Setiawan, I., Iskandar, T., Ilhamsyah, Y., Wahid, M. and M. Musman (2010). Currents Simulation in the Malacca Straits by Using Three-Dimensional Numerical Model. Sains Malaysiana, 39(4): 519-524.

Schellekens, J., Bruijnzeel, L.A., Scatena, F.N., Bink, N.J. and F. Holwerda (2000). Evaporation from a tropical rain forest, luquillo experimental forest, eastern Puerto Rico. Water Resources Research, 36(8): 2183-2196.

UNEP/GEF (2003). Regionally Based Assessment of Persistent Toxic Substances, Global Report 2003. UNEP Chemicals, Switzerland: 1-211.

UNEP/GEF (2002). Regionally Based Assessment of Persistent Toxic Substances, Regional Report 2002. UNEP Chemicals, Switzerland: 1-211.

Vijgen, J. (2006). The Legacy of Lindane HCH Isomer Production. Main Report. International HCH & Pesticides Association.

Vijgen, J. and C. Egenhofer (2009). Obsolete (lethal) Pesticides: A ticking time bomb and why we have to act now. International HCH & Pesticides Association.

Share
Back to top
Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing