Atmospheric pollution for trace elements in the remote high-altitude atmosphere in central Asia as recorded in snow from Mt. Qomolangma (Everest) of the Himalayas

Lee, Khanghyun; Hur, Soon Do; Hou, Shugui; Hong, Sungmin; Qin, Xiang; Ren, Jiawen; Liu, Yapping; Rosman, K.J.R.; Barbante, Carlo; Boutron, Claude F.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2008.06.022

Cited by 97 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Therefore, some researchers studied the major and trace element concentrations in snowpit, ice core, and surface snow. Lee et al (2008) investigated trace metal concentrations in snowpit samples collected from the East Rongbuk glacier. Concentrations of Mn ranged from 102 to 6884 ng/kg, serving as the dominant element in snowpit.…”

Section: Major and Trace Elements In Environmental Media Of The Qinghmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inorganic pollution around the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: An overview of the current observations

Duan

Lü

et al. 2016

Science of The Total Environment

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The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the highest geographical unit in the world. Thus, it serves an important role in evaluating long-term ecologic conditions and environmental status and changes over time. This study summarizes major and trace element concentrations in biota and in water and soil. It also pays attention to gaseous pollutant and particle concentrations in air around the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The degree of soil heavy metal contamination and the water heavy metal hazard index were respectively evaluated. The contamination degrees of two sampling areas around the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau reached extremely high levels with soil mC d (modified degree of contamination) values exceeding 20. Surprisingly, over 54% of sampling areas showed moderate or more serious soil contamination degree (mC d N 1.5). Moreover, the hazard indexes of two important rivers were 1.56 and 7.59, reaching unacceptable level. The potential risk might be beyond our expectation. Therefore, it should be an urgent and top priority to identify and confirm possible pollution sources around the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Then, it is imperative to implement feasible and effective environmental quality control strategies.

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Section: Major and Trace Elements In Environmental Media Of The Qinghmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inorganic pollution around the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: An overview of the current observations

Duan

Lü

et al. 2016

Science of The Total Environment

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“…Numerous studies have investigated the transport of pollutants from the IGP to the Himalayan foothills, the immediate source region for potential transport to the Tibetan Plateau (TP) (Pant et al, 2006;Dumka et al, 2008;Komppula et al, 2009;Hyvärinen et al, 2009;Ram et al, 2010;Brun et al, 2011;Gautam et al, 2011;Srivastava et al, 2012). Further, a suite of studies involving satellite imagery (Ramanathan et al, 2007a;Brun et al, 2011), back trajectories (Lu et al, 2011), model calculations (Kopacz et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2015), ice core analyses (Lee et al, 2008;Kang et al, 2010), and measurements in the higher Himalaya Chen et al, 2017) strongly suggest that pollutants are efficiently transported from the IGP to the higher Himalaya and onto the Tibetan Plateau, especially during spring prior to the monsoon. This transport north of the Himalayas is potentially concerning as the TP plays a vital role in regulating the regional climate due to its effect on the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) and the hydrologic cycle.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transport of regional pollutants through a remote trans-Himalayan valley in Nepal

Dhungel

Kathayat²,

Mahata

et al. 2018

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. Anthropogenic emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels and biomass in Asia have increased in recent years. High concentrations of reactive trace gases and lightabsorbing and light-scattering particles from these sources form persistent haze layers, also known as atmospheric brown clouds, over the Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP) from December through early June. Models and satellite imagery suggest that strong wind systems within deep Himalayan valleys are major pathways by which pollutants from the IGP are transported to the higher Himalaya. However, observational evidence of the transport of polluted air masses through Himalayan valleys has been lacking to date. To evaluate this pathway, we measured black carbon (BC), ozone (O 3 ), and associated meteorological conditions within the Kali Gandaki Valley (KGV), Nepal, from January 2013 to July 2015. BC and O 3 varied over both diurnal and seasonal cycles. Relative to nighttime, mean BC and O 3 concentrations within the valley were higher during daytime when the up-valley flow (average velocity of 17 m s −1 ) dominated. BC and O 3 concentrations also varied seasonally with minima during the monsoon season (July to September). Concentrations of both species subsequently increased post-monsoon and peaked during March to May. Average concentrations for O 3 during the seasonally representative months of April, August, and November were 41.7, 24.5, and 29.4 ppbv, respectively, while the corresponding BC concentrations were 1.17, 0.24, and 1.01 µg m −3 , respectively. Up-valley fluxes of BC were significantly greater than down-valley fluxes during all seasons. In addition, frequent episodes of BC concentrations 2-3 times higher than average persisted from several days to a week during non-monsoon months. Our observations of increases in BC concentration and fluxes in the valley, particularly during pre-monsoon, provide evidence that trans-Himalayan valleys are important conduits for transport of pollutants from the IGP to the higher Himalaya.

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“…Once released into the air, nickel can attach itself to fine particles (Song et al, 2003), which could easily pass through conventional air pollution control devices (APCDs), and may stay in the atmosphere for 5-8 days normally and even 30 days for very small particles (Mukherjee, 1998). These nickel-containing particulates may transport over long distance before they finally settle down through wet and dry deposition into soil and aqueous systems (Pacyna and Ottar, 1985;Lee et al, 2008;Cong et al, 2010). Although nickel is not the major pollutants in the atmosphere, its toxicological and environmental impacts can't be ignored.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic atmospheric nickel emissions and its distribution characteristics in China

Tian

Cheng

et al. 2012

Science of The Total Environment

113

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Atmospheric pollution for trace elements in the remote high-altitude atmosphere in central Asia as recorded in snow from Mt. Qomolangma (Everest) of the Himalayas

Cited by 97 publications

References 56 publications

Inorganic pollution around the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: An overview of the current observations

Inorganic pollution around the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: An overview of the current observations

Transport of regional pollutants through a remote trans-Himalayan valley in Nepal

Anthropogenic atmospheric nickel emissions and its distribution characteristics in China

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