A landscape-scale approach to examining the fate of atmospherically derived industrial metals in the surficial environment

Stromsoe, Nicola; Marx, Samuel K.; McGowan, Hamish A.; Callow, Nik; Heijnis, Henk; Zawadzki, Atun

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.10.072

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Collection processing and dating of the Club Lake core was previously described in Stromsoe et al (2013), while similarly the Guthega Reservoir core was described in Stromsoe et al (2015). Both cores are described briefly here.…”

Section: Estimating Sedimentation Ratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The down -profile distribution of the radionuclide activity at the reference (presumed non- Pb ex fallout, including the area's relatively high precipitation, high rates of dust deposition (Marx et al, 2011;Stromsoe et al, 2015), and relative distance from the coast, where 210 Pb production is low (Garcia-Orellana et al, 2006;Preiss et al, 1996). .…”

Section: Radionuclide Reference Inventoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Estimates of late Holocene soil production and erosion in the Snowy Mountains, Australia

Stromsoe

Marx

Callow

et al. 2016

CATENA

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Soil production in actively uplifting or high precipitation alpine landscapes is potentially rapid. However, these same landscapes are also susceptible to erosion and can be sensitive to changes in climate and anthropogenic activity which can upset the balance between soil production and erosion. The Snowy Mountains, southeastern Australia, are a tectonically stable, low relief, moderate precipitation mountain environment. The alpine area is extensively blanketed by soil that has been subjected to more intensive episodes of erosion during past periods of anthropogenic disturbance and under cold climate conditions of the late Quaternary. In this study, rates of soil development and hillslope erosion were investigated using radiocarbon dating, fallout radionuclides and sediment cores collected from lakes and reservoirs. Estimated Holocene soil development rates were 20-220 t/km2/y. Erosion rates determined from the radionuclides 137Cs and 210Pb were equivocal, due to the inherent spatial variability of radionuclide inventories relative to apparent erosion rates. Estimated average erosion rates over the past 100 years, determined from 210Pbex inventories, were 60 t/km2/y (95% CI: 10, 90). Inventories of 137Cs observed at the same site implied that more recent erosion rates (over the past 60 years) was below the detection limits of the sampling method applied here (i.e. /km2/y). The upper estimate of 90 t/km2/y is comparable to the mean erosion rate estimated using the radionuclide method for uncultivated sites in Australia and is significantly lower than that measured at sites were vegetation cover was disturbed by livestock grazing prior to its exclusion from the alpine area in the 1940s CE. Low erosion and high soil production rates relative to the lowland soils are likely related to extensive vegetation cover, which, in this context, protects soils against erosion and contributes to the formation of organic alpine soils, that rapidly accumulate organic matter by comparison to other soil types. Disciplines Medicine and Health Sciences | Social and Behavioral Sciences Publication DetailsStromsoe, N., Marx, S. K., Callow, N., McGowan, H. A. & Heijnis, H. (2016 AbstractSoil production in actively uplifting or high precipitation alpine landscapes is potentially rapid.However, these same landscapes are also susceptible to erosion and can be sensitive to changes in climate and anthropogenic activity which can upset the balance between soil production and erosion. The Snowy Mountains, southeastern Australia, are a tectonically stable, low relief, moderate precipitation mountain environment. The alpine area is extensively blanketed by soil that has been subjected to more intensive episodes of erosion during past periods of anthropogenic disturbance and under cold climate conditions of the late Quaternary. In this study, rates of soil development and hillslope erosion were investigated using radiocarbon dating, fallout radionuclides and sediment cores collected from lakes and reservoirs. the mean erosion rate est...

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Section: Estimating Sedimentation Ratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Radionuclide Reference Inventoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimates of late Holocene soil production and erosion in the Snowy Mountains, Australia

Stromsoe

Marx

Callow

et al. 2016

CATENA

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“…This chapter is published as Stromsoe et al (2013), also see Appendix 1. Chapter 4 examines the response of different surface archives to assess how the magnitude of contamination varies across the landscape and to identify factors which control metal enrichment, and is published as Stromsoe et al (2015), also see Appendix 2. Chapter 5 quantifies soil production and erosion rates to assess landscape stability (over timescales of millennia to decades) to understanding how soil erosion may influence the transport or accumulation of metals in the landscape, and has been submitted for publication in Catena.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Collection processing and dating of the Club Lake core was previously described in Stromsoe et al (2013) and Chapter 3, while similarly the Guthega core was described in Stromsoe et al (2015) and Chapter 4. Both cores are described briefly here.…”

Section: Estimating Sedimentation Ratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The fate of atmospheric metal pollutants in the landscape, Snowy Mountains, south-eastern Australia

Stromsoe¹

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Industrial metals, emitted to the atmosphere by human activity, have been transported and deposited to almost every location on Earth, including Antarctica and Greenland. This is demonstrated by an increasing body of literature in which many atmospheric industrial metals (e.g. Pb, Hg, Cd and Cu) have been shown to be significantly enriched in environmental archives. Studies have largely focussed on peat mires and ice cores, which receive high rates of atmospheric deposition relative to terrestrial inputs. By contrast, few studies have examined the extent of atmospherically derived metals across the wider landscape, where processes such as pedogenesis, erosion and sedimentation affect the spatial extent and magnitude of metal enrichment. In the Snowy Mountains, Australia, atmospheric pollutant metals have previously been identified in alpine peat mires, although their impact on the wider environment has not been assessed. Interest in the fate of atmospheric pollutants in the Snowy Mountains has increased due to the operation of a cloud seeding program in which, silver iodide, AgI, is released to the atmosphere, leading to concerns that silver, Ag, contamination may be accumulating in this ecologically important region. This thesis examines the spatial extent and magnitude of atmospherically derived metals in the SnowyMountains by investigating patterns of enrichment in a range of geomorphic settings and catchment positions, including in soils, peat mires, lakes and reservoirs. The potential movement of metals through the landscape was also assessed by examining rates of geomorphic processes, including rates of pedogenesis and erosion, determined via radionuclides. The thesis was undertaken in three parts which are summarised below. by atmospheric deposition (ombrotrophic peat mires in the upper parts of catchments), the order and magnitude of metal enrichment most closely resembled that of collected aerosols, however, on average enrichment was 5-7 fold lower than in the aerosols. Metals most sensitive to enrichment, i.e., those with low natural abundance in local sediments (Cd, Ag, Sb, Mo), were enriched in all environments including the most geomorphically active settings (tarn lake sediments). In reservoirs, located lower in catchments, patterns of metal enrichment largely reflected concentrations in catchment soils but metals were additionally enriched or depleted depending on their relative particle reactivity. For those metals which are most sensitive to enrichment (Ag, Cd, Sb), the increase in excess flux required to reach trigger value concentrations is lowest in the reservoir sediments (Ag: 13-18, Cd: 7-10 and Sb: 17-61 times the current flux) and highest in the tarn lake (Ag: 60, Cd: 15, Sb: 27 times the current flux) and the peat mire (Ag: 74, Cd: 15, Sb: 18 times the current flux).In part three of this thesis, rates of soil production and soil erosion were quantified using radiocarbon dating, fallout radionuclides and sediment yields in lakes and reservoirs in order to assess the stability of l...

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Trace element and Pb isotope fingerprinting of atmospheric pollution sources: A case study from the east coast of Ireland

Rosca

Tomlinson

Geibert

et al. 2018

Applied Geochemistry

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A landscape-scale approach to examining the fate of atmospherically derived industrial metals in the surficial environment

Cited by 8 publications

References 79 publications

Estimates of late Holocene soil production and erosion in the Snowy Mountains, Australia

Estimates of late Holocene soil production and erosion in the Snowy Mountains, Australia

The fate of atmospheric metal pollutants in the landscape, Snowy Mountains, south-eastern Australia

Trace element and Pb isotope fingerprinting of atmospheric pollution sources: A case study from the east coast of Ireland

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