Abstract
ANTARCTICA is believed to be a relatively pristine continent, mainly because of its remote location and the atmospheric circulation patterns that limit the transport of industrial aerosols into the Antarctic polar cell1–4. This perception is apparently supported by the extremely low concentrations of lead in Antarctic surface waters―an observation that has been interpreted as showing insig-nificant contamination by anthropogenic lead5. The isotopic com-position of lead in other natural waters has been used as a tracer of the sources of lead, and in particular to identify anthropogenic inputs6,7. Here we apply this approach to Antarctic surface waters, and show that despite the low concentrations of lead in these waters (which are confirmed by our measurements), their isotopic compo-sition reveals a significant contribution of lead from industrial sources. The extremely low concentrations of lead in these waters appear to be due to biological scavenging of the lead during periods of intense primary production.
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