Abstract
Black carbon (BC) particles contribute to climate warming by heating the atmosphere and reducing the albedo of snow/ice surfaces. The available Arctic BC deposition records are restricted to the Atlantic and North American sectors, for which previous studies suggest considerable spatial differences in trends. Here, we present first long-term BC deposition and radiocarbon-based source apportionment data from Russia using four lake sediment records from western Arctic Russia, a region influenced by BC emissions from oil and gas production. The records consistently indicate increasing BC fluxes between 1800 and 2014. The radiocarbon analyses suggest mainly (∼70%) biomass sources for BC with fossil fuel contributions peaking around 1960–1990. Backward calculations with the atmospheric transport model FLEXPART show emission source areas and indicate that modeled BC deposition between 1900 and 1999 is largely driven by emission trends. Comparison of observed and modeled data suggests the need to update anthropogenic BC emission inventories for Russia, as these seem to underestimate Russian BC emissions and since 1980s potentially inaccurately portray their trend. Additionally, the observations may indicate underestimation of wildfire emissions in inventories. Reliable information on BC deposition trends and sources is essential for design of efficient and effective policies to limit climate warming.
Highlights
Black carbon (BC) particulates are produced by incomplete combustion of carbonaceous material both naturally and in anthropogenic activities
We present first long-term radiocarbon sources of soot BC (SBC) in Russia and the Arctic, while previous studies have shown considerable spatial variation in Arctic BC sources with the contribution of biomass burning to BC ranging from 5 to 88% in pan-Arctic estuarine surface sediments[14] and strong seasonal variation in the Arctic atmosphere with biomass sources dominating in summer and fossil sources in winter.[11]
The SBC fluxes of the studied lakes are higher than previously recorded with the same analytical method in five Finnish Arctic lakes after ca. 18508 even when considering their different sediment accumulation rates, indicating the influence of strong BC sources to the studied lakes
Summary
Black carbon (BC) particulates are produced by incomplete combustion of carbonaceous material both naturally (e.g., from forest fires) and in anthropogenic activities (e.g., energy production, residential burning, industry, and traffic). We use four lake sediment records, preserving chemically inert BC in chronological succession, located in close proximity to the most intense Russian flaring areas. This information will help evaluate the potential importance of flaring as an Arctic BC source in the past and present and will enlighten how Arctic industrial development may affect future trends of Arctic BC deposition
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