Microelement and Stable Isotopic Composition of Snowpack in the Katunsky Biosphere Reserve (Altai Republic)

Abstract

The present-day regional level of various trace elements contents together with characteristics of isotopic composition was for the first time estimated in seasonal snow cover of Altai. As a background territory, the State Nature Biosphere reserve «Katunsky» had been chosen. This reserve is included into the World network of biosphere reserves under the UNESCO Program «Man and biosphere». The route snow survey had been carried out at the end of February 2014 since this is a period of maximum snow accumulation. The snow survey involved evaluation of snow storages, stratigraphic analysis of the snow cover, and layer-by-layer snow sampling for analysis of its trace element and isotopic compositions. Isotopic and stratigraphic analysis of visually selected layers of the snow cover revealed substantial variation in the values of δ 18 O and δD (the maximum difference between layers was 120.1 and 15.3 ‰, respectively), while d exc changed within the range from 5.6 to 16.6 ‰. The weighted-mean values of the snowpack isotopic composition are the following: δ 18 O = −24.9 and δD = −188.9 ‰, and the isotopic ratio of oxygen and deuterium is described by the equation δD = 8,3δ 18 О + 18.9. The analysis of microelement composition of the snow samples made with the use of the crustal enrichment factor (EFc) and correlation matrix allowed determination of elements (Ba, Be, V, Co, Li, Mn, Ni, Sr, Tl, Th, U и Cs) released into the atmosphere above the territory under investigation mainly with particles of fly ash, in which the ratio of elements corresponds to the regional natural sources-soils and underlying rocks. It was shown that the main part of elements Ag, As, Bi, Cu, Mo, Sb, Zn come preferably from anthropogenic sources which are non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises of East Kazakhstan and pits of operating and abandoned mines of Rudny Altai.

Assessment of Mercury Concentrations and Fluxes Deposited from the Atmosphere on the Territory of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area

“…Simultaneously samples were taken for Hg, trace metals, and isotopic composition analysis. Details of sample preparation and the determination of stable isotope compositions (δ18O and δD) in wet precipitation are described elsewhere [50,51].…”

Factors Influencing Changes of the Initial Stable Water Isotopes Composition in the Seasonal Snowpack of the South of Western Siberia, Russia

“…where V-SMOW refers to the Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water The stable isotope (δ 18 O, δD) analysis of snow samples was carried out at the Chemical Analytical Center of IWEP SB RAS. Directly before instrumental analysis, snow samples were placed into the closed specially prepared plastic containers [25,34] and melted at room temperature. Then, 10 mL of melted snow water was filtered through a membrane filter with a pore diameter of 0.45 µm using sterile Minisart ® NML Plus syringe and syringe nozzles to determine the isotopic (δD and δ 18 O) composition.…”

“…Data on the stable isotope compositions of oxygen and hydrogen in precipitation and snowpack is actively used to obtain important information about climatic, hydrological, and ecological changes in the environment [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], including the assessment of the transboundary transfer of atmospheric moisture falling on the studied area as precipitation, and the identification of the sources of this moisture [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. In contrast to snowfalls, seasonal snow cover of middle and polar latitudes can give integral seasonal (for the winter period) characteristics of the moisture's isotopic composition entering the studied area [24][25][26]. At the same time, the sampling of snowpack during the maximum snow accumulation period is simpler to perform in relation to the sampling of atmospheric precipitation and allows you to cover a large area with the necessary sampling network.…”

Impact of Snowmelt Conditions on the Isotopic Composition of the Surface Waters of the Upper Ob River during the Flood Period

“…It is known that the snow cover of temperate and polar latitudes as a whole determines the integral seasonal (for the winter period) characteristics of the isotopic composition of moisture entering the study area [36,37]. For the watersheds of a cold climate, the contribution of winter precipitation to the water runoff occurs only from the beginning of the snowmelt period; therefore, the bulk snowpack sampled just before the snowmelt is a convenient object for studying the distribution of winter snowfalls over the catchment area.…”

“…After collection, composite samples of the snowpack were placed in clean tight-closing plastic bags and stored frozen until analysis. Before instrumental analysis, snow samples were transferred into specially prepared closed plastic containers [36] and melted at room temperature. Then, by analogy with river and rain waters, they were filtered through a membrane filter with 0.45 µm pore diameter; three to five parallel samples were taken from the resulting filtrate and placed in sealed test tubes.…”