Abstract
Mountain ombrotrophic peatlands in Central Europe are an important stock of transboundary contamination both of natural and anthropogenic origin. The Śnieżka Mountain (West Sudetes) forms a significant orographic barrier and receives aerosols from broadly-recognized anthropogenic sources (production and use of stainless steel, processing of uranium, coal combustion, nuclear weapon tests, and Chernobyl accident). The main objective of the study was to assess the pattern of distribution and origin of trace elements and to distinguish the long-range transport vs. local signals in two 210Pb and 14C – dated peat cores from the highest summit of the Karkonosze (West Sudetes) spanning the last 280 years.Maximum values and accumulations of almost all investigated elements (Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cr, Ti, Al, U, Sc, and REE) were identified around the 1970s. The analysis of peat using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirmed the occurrence of spheroidal aluminosilicate fly ash particles (SAP) in the topmost 40 cm (from AD 1938) together with a maximum of mullite (3Al2O3·2SiO2), an anthropogenic marker originating from coal-based power plants. The overall 206Pb/207Pb signature ranges from 1.160 to 1.173, indicating a predominant contribution of anthropogenic Pb. Human activities promote the release of mobile 234U, due to the weaker bonds to mineral structure, and cause the radiogenic disequilibrium between 238U and its daughter 234U.
Highlights
Industrial activities caused dramatic changes in ecosystems, releasing uncontrolled amounts of trace elements influencing both biotic and abiotic components (Rose, 2015; Waters et al, 2016, 2018).Atmospheric pollutants are transported by wind and dispersed at different geographical scales
à 10; were S [Rare Earth Element (REE)]sample is the sum of REE concentrations in a sample, S [REE]UCC is the sum of REE concentrations in the upper continental crust (144.3 mg gÀ1; Wedepohl, 1995), PAR is the peat accumulation rate calculated according to formula (h2h1)/(y1-y2), where h-depth, y-age, and BD is the bulk density (g cmÀ3)
Taking into account the fact that industrial activities promote the release of 234U to the environment, we propose here that ombrotrophic peatlands can record the influence of humans on the biogeochemical cycle of uranium
Summary
Industrial activities caused dramatic changes in ecosystems, releasing uncontrolled amounts of trace elements influencing both biotic and abiotic components (Rose, 2015; Waters et al, 2016, 2018).Atmospheric pollutants are transported by wind and dispersed at different geographical scales. Larger particles are generally deposited close to the emitter (Samson, 1988) while regionally-recognized lighter particles can be transported from hundreds to thousands of kilometres, passing through cities, states, and countries, and strengthen the local pollution (Munn, 1972; Erel et al, 2002, 2006; Bergin et al, 2005). It results in a more global, uniform pollutant signal over continents for certain pollutants (i.e. contaminants carried by submicronic aerosols: artificial radionuclides, lead derived from the combustion of leaded gasoline). The mutual effect of different climate factors like wind trajectories and precipitation play the most important role in mountain pollution (Catalan et al, 2013; Le Roux et al, 2016)
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