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Dan Hammarlund

Dan Hammarlund

Professor

Dan Hammarlund

Lead Contamination of Subarctic Lakes and Its Response to Reduced Atmospheric Fallout: Can the Recovery Process Be Counteracted by the Ongoing Climate Change?

Author

  • Jonatan Klaminder
  • Dan Hammarlund
  • Ulla Kokfelt
  • Jorien E Vonk
  • Christian Bigler

Summary, in English

Can a climate-triggered export of old contaminants from the soil alter the lead (Pb) contaminant burden of subarctic lakes? To address this question, we reconstructed the pollution history of three high latitude lakes situated in a region where a recent climatic shift has occurred. Dated sediment records were used as archives of past Pb inputs to the lakes, where the difference in the (206)Pb/(207)Pb ratio between atmospheric contaminants ((206)Pb/(207)Pb ratio <1.16) and geogenic Pb in the catchment soil ((206)Pb/(207)Pb ratio >1.22) were used to trace fluxes of Pb contaminants. Lead contaminants were found in sediments deposited since Roman times. A significant export of Pb from the soil contaminant pool is indicated in two of the lakes surrounded by near-shore permafrost soils. Here, levels of Pb contaminants and (206)Pb/(207)Pb ratios of sediments deposited after the 1970s appear not to have been strongly affected by the >/=90% reduction in atmospheric deposition rates and increasing (206)Pb/(207)Pb ratios of atmospheric Pb since the 1990s. We concluded that soil processes stimulated by the ongoing climate change at high latitudes might work counteractive to efforts to reduce contaminant levels in subarctic lakes.

Department/s

  • Quaternary Sciences
  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2010

Language

English

Pages

2335-2340

Publication/Series

Environmental Science & Technology

Volume

44

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

The American Chemical Society (ACS)

Topic

  • Geology

Status

Published

Project

  • Climate Initiative

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1520-5851