Peat bogs in northern Alberta, Canada, reveal decades of declining atmospheric Pb contamination

Peat cores were collected from six bogs in northern Alberta to reconstruct changes in the atmospheric deposition of Pb, a valuable tracer of human activities. In each profile, the maximum Pb enrichment is found well below the surface. Radiometric age dating using three independent approaches (14C measurements of plant macrofossils combined with the atmospheric bomb pulse curve, plus 210Pb confirmed using the fallout radionuclides 137Cs and 241Am) showed that Pb contamination has been in decline for decades. Today, the surface layers of these bogs are comparable in composition to the “cleanest” peat samples ever found in the Northern Hemisphere, from a Swiss bog ~ 6000 to 9000 years old. The lack of contemporary Pb contamination in the Alberta bogs is testimony to successful international efforts of the past decades to reduce anthropogenic emissions of this potentially toxic metal to the atmosphere.

SHOTYK W.;  APPLEBY Peter;  BICALHO Beatriz;  DAVIES Lauren;  FROESE Duane;  GRANT-WEAVER Iain;  KRACHLER Michael;  MAGNAN Gabriel;  MULLAN-BOUDREAU Gillian;  NOERNBERG Tommy;  PELLETIER Rick;  SHANNON Bob;  VAN BELLEN Simon;  ZACCONE Claudio; 

2017-01-18

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION

JRC103036

0094-8276,   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC103036,   

10.1002/2016GL070952,