The Arctic at Risk:
A Circumpolar Atlas of Environmental Concerns

by Stephanie Pfirman, Kathleen Crane, Kim Kane, and Tania Simoncelli

Review Draft: Not for Citation

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Maps

Maps are colored only where we have data. The sample location is shown by a black dot and the colored halo indicates the contaminant level. A lack of color on a map should be interpreted as an unknown level, not a low level. All citations for data presented on a map are listed in the associated data table.

It is important to examine carefully the scales used on each map. While the units are in ug/g wet weight for contaminant levels in tissue, and ng/l for contaminant levels in water, the range differs from map to map. Generally we chose scales that showed the range of the data, but we also wanted to keep them the same, for example, for all depictions of organochlorines in water. As a result, because the levels of HCHs are higher than those of PCBs and DDTs, you see more red dots on the HCH map than on the other two.

If you are interested in knowing more about the data presented, the best approach would be to go back to the original citations.

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