Abstract
The chemical composition of snow and meltwater in the 13 km2catchment of Scott Turnerbreen, Svalbard, was investigated during the spring and summer of 1993. This paper assesses the provenance of solute in the snowpack and its impact on runoff chemistry. Dry snow contains 420μeql-1of solute, is slightly acidic (pH 5.4) and is dominated by Na+and Cl-. Wet snow is more dilute (total concentration 340μeql-1), and less acidic (pH 5.9). This is consistent with the elution of ions from the snowpack by meltwater. Snowpack solute can be partitioned into the following fractions: sea-salt aerosol, acid aerosol and crustal. About 98% of snowpack solute is sea salt, yielding 22000 kg km-2a-1. The behaviour of snowpack-derived Cl-in runoff is distinctive, peaking at over 800 μeql-1early in the melt season as runoff picks up, before declining quasi-exponentially. This represents the discharge of snowmelt concentrated by elution within the snowpack which subsequently becomes relatively dilute. A solute yield of 140 kg km-2a-1can be attributed to anthropogenically generated acid aerosols, representing long-range atmospheric transport of pollutants, a potential contributor to Arctic runoff acidification.
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