A comparative study of long-term Hg and Pb sediment archives
Stephen A. Norton A E , George L. Jacobson B , Jiří Kopáček C and Tomáš Navrátil D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A School of Earth and Climate Sciences and The Climate Change Institute, 314 Bryand Global Sciences Center, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469-5790, USA.
B School of Biology and Ecology and The Climate Change Institute, 320 Bryand Global Sciences Center, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469-5790, USA.
C Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Science, Institute of Hydrobiology, Na Sadkach 7, CZ-370 05, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.
D Institute of Geology, Czech Academy of Science, Rozvojova 269, CZ-165 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
E Corresponding author. Email: norton@maine.edu
Environmental Chemistry 13(3) 517-527 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN15114
Submitted: 2 June 2015 Accepted: 7 September 2015 Published: 30 November 2015
Environmental context. Lead and mercury are toxic atmospheric pollutants emitted in large quantities since 1850. Accumulating lake and peat sediments capture the pollutants from the atmosphere and indirectly record changes in deposition through time. This study of four long-term sediment records addresses the questions, ‘What proportion of this atmospheric deposition is natural background?’ and ‘Does the archive faithfully represent true rates of atmospheric deposition?’
Abstract. Atmospheric phenomena have a large influence on the flux of mercury (Hg) and lead (Pb) to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Some direct phenomena involve high-frequency variations in air movement; other indirect processes involve longer-term changes in climate and associated vegetation and hydrology. Here, we use evidence from sediment cores to explore how these atmospheric and landscape processes produced large natural variations in Hg and Pb deposition over thousands of years before industrial pollution. Cores from Sargent Mountain Pond, coastal Maine, USA (16 600 years), Plešné Lake, south-western Czech Republic (15 000 years), Lake Tulane, central Florida, USA (45 000 years), and Caribou Bog, Orono, Maine, USA (10 000 years) each illustrate how long-term local environmental changes influence the deposition and net retention of Hg and Pb. Important natural factors that emerge from comparisons among these four sites include forestation, changing groundwater hydrology, evolution of the watershed and lake system and (watershed area)/(lake area) ratio, all overlain by late-Holocene anthropogenic atmospheric pollution.
Additional keywords: bog sediment, lake sediment, lead, mercury, pollution archives.
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