Isotopic Analyses Fingerprint Sources of Polycyclic Aromatic Compound-Bearing Dust in Athabasca Oil Sands Region Snowpack.

Fugitive dust associated with surface mining activities is one of the principal vectors for transport of airborne contaminants in Canada's Athabasca oil sands region (AOSR). Effective environmental management requires quantitative identification of the sources of this dust. Using natural abundance radiocarbon (ΔC) and dual (δC, δH) compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA), this study investigated the sources of dust and particulate-bound polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) deposited in AOSR lake snowpack.

Annually resolved Atlantic sea surface temperature variability over the past 2,900 y.

Global warming due to anthropogenic factors can be amplified or dampened by natural climate oscillations, especially those involving sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the North Atlantic which vary on a multidecadal scale (Atlantic multidecadal variability, AMV). Because the instrumental record of AMV is short, long-term behavior of AMV is unknown, but climatic teleconnections to regions beyond the North Atlantic offer the prospect of reconstructing AMV from high-resolution records elsewhere. Annually resolved titanium from an annually laminated sedimentary record from Ellesmere Island, Canada, shows that the record is strongly influenced by AMV via atmospheric circulation anomalies.

Dataset for the assessment of metallic pollution in the Saint-Charles River sediments (Québec City, QC, Canada).

This Data in Brief article presents sedimentological and geochemical parameters from a set of sedimentary samples collected in the Saint-Charles River, a tributary of the Saint-Lawrence River flowing in Québec City (QC, Canada). It details the experimental design, methods, materials and results of destructive analyses related to a multi-proxy study of polymetallic contamination in sediments collected within an urban reservoir (Spatial and temporal patterns of metallic pollution in Québec City, Canada: Sources and hazard assessment from reservoir sediment records, https://doi.org/10.

Spatial and temporal patterns of metallic pollution in Québec City, Canada: Sources and hazard assessment from reservoir sediment records.

Québec City (QC, Canada) is an important urban center developed along the Saint-Charles River, at the confluence with the Saint-Lawrence River. Here, environmental issues related to pollution have been recently raised for sediments trapped upstream a dam built in the early 1970s. The major concern is about downstream transport of sediments and contaminants toward the Saint-Lawrence Estuary, a protected marine area of high socioeconomic value.