A comparative study of long-term Hg and Pb sediment archives.

0465360 - BC 2017 RIV AU eng J - Journal Article
Norton, S. A. - Jacobson, G. L. - Kopáček, Jiří - Navrátil, Tomáš
A comparative study of long-term Hg and Pb sediment archives.
Environmental Chemistry. Roč. 13, č. 3 (2016), s. 517-527. ISSN 1448-2517. E-ISSN 1449-8979
Institutional support: RVO:60077344 ; RVO:67985831
Keywords : bog sediment * lake sediment * lead * mercury * pollution archives
Subject RIV: DJ - Water Pollution ; Quality; DD - Geochemistry (GLU-S)
Impact factor: 3.516, year: 2016

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.

Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0263964