Historical pollution of seldom monitored trace elements in Sweden—Part B: Sediment analysis of silver, antimony, thallium and indium

Abstract

Sediment cores from four boreal and remote lakes in a south to north transect in central Sweden were analysed for acid leachable silver, antimony, thallium and indium in the solid sediment phase and the corresponding porewater. Dating of the cores was made by their content of acid leachable lead and the (206)Pb/(207)Pb ratio, in one lake also by (210)Pb. The impact of diagenesis on element redistribution in the sediments was included and found to be minor except for thallium. The results show lowered concentrations towards the north and most intense accumulation after the Second World War, which is taken as evidence for atmospheric deposition being the primary source. Indium has declining concentrations in recent strata while silver and antimony increase. Thallium has lowered acid-leachable concentrations in recent strata. For all metals the impact of domestic industrialisation as well as the early industrialisation of central Europe is discernible. Only thallium appears to reach a geological background at depths that correspond to the late 18th century. For the other metals elevated levels are concluded.

Cause of the chalcophile trace element enrichments marking the Holocene to Anthropocene transition in northern Chesapeake Bay sediments

“…A decade ago, elevated Ag was regarded as a definitive marker of wastewater treatment plant outfalls (Sañ udo-Wilhelmy and Flegal, 1992;Gobeil, 1999). However, more recent evidence suggests that aerosols can be an important anthropogenic Ag source at distances beyond the influence of individual wastewater treatment plants (Ranville and Flegal, 2005;Grahn et al, 2006). While we cannot exclude wastewater treatment plants in the Susquehanna Basin as the source of the Bay's Ag enrichment, the Wye aerosol data show that treatment plants' involvement is not proven by Ag enrichment.…”

Historical pollution of seldom monitored trace elements in Sweden—Part A: Sediment properties and chronological indicators

“…At lower ratios two non-linear regions are observed at approximately 1.15-1.23 and 1.11-1. 18. Thus it appears as if the oldest pollution in these cores (corresponding to the early industrialisation of Europe) originated from only one dominating external source.…”

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

“…These metals are found to be present in the atmosphere of the Snowy Mountains at concentrations which exceed natural concentrations by 2.6 (Ni) to 48 (Sb) times (that is, in comparison to the levels which existed prior the industrialisation of the Australian continent in the mid-late 1800s CE). In doing so, this study has contributed to the understanding of effects of anthropogenic activity in perturbing the concentration of these metals, supporting evidence that they are widely transported through the atmosphere and subsequently incorporated in the environment (Grahn et al, 2006;Planchon et al, 2002;Shotyk et al, 1996).…”

“…Enrichment of atmospheric As and Sb extending back to Roman times has been documented in Swiss peat bogs (Shotyk, 1996a), while recent Ag and Sb contamination has been detected in Swedish lake sediments (Grahn et al, 2006). Greater than natural concentrations of metals including Cu, Zn, Ag and Cd, have also been found to occur in ice from the Bolivian Andes (Hong et al, 2004a), Antarctica (Planchon et al, 2002) and Greenland (Candelone et al, 1995).…”

“…However, a variety of other potentially toxic metals including Cd, Sb, As, Zn and Cr have been shown to enriched in the Earth's surface environment as a result of human activity (Grahn et al, 2006;Planchon et al, 2002;Shotyk et al, 1996). Despite potentially considerable impacts to human health and ecosystems, there is, to date, a relative paucity of data quantifying both the natural background concentrations and the scale of anthropogenic enrichment of these metals (Nriagu, 1990).…”