Kejimkujik National Park, in Nova Scotia, Canada, is a sensitive region for metal(loid) contamination, such as mercury, in part due to long-range atmospheric deposition from global and regional industrial centers. The region is remote from industrial centres, but is downwind of major pollution sources in the Eastern United States and Canada, and historically had numerous gold mining sites. Due to a paucity of long-term atmospheric deposition monitoring in this region, little is known about the response of Kejimkujik lakes to multiple changing global, regional and local atmospheric Hg and metal(loid) sources. Here, we used multiple lake sediment cores to reconstruct anthropogenic depositional fluxes of metal(loid)s of concern for the last ~210years. Results showed that Kejimkujik lake sediments are highly enriched in lead (Pb), antimony (Sb) and tin (Sn), with post-industrial metal(loid) concentrations being >4-fold greater than natural baseline levels (prior to ~1800) and moderately enriched in silver (Ag), bismuth (Bi), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), rubidium (Rb), tellurium (Te), thallium (Tl), vanadium (V), tungsten (W) and zinc (Zn), with post-industrial metal(loid) concentrations being between 1.5 and 4-fold greater than natural baseline levels (prior to ~1800). Lake sediment core reconstructions of total atmospheric Hg deposition matched well with Hg wet deposition monitoring data from the overlapped period (1997-2010) being 9.1±2.7μg/m/yr and 7.0±0.7μg/m/yr respectively. Lakes closest to historic gold mining sites show spikes in Ag, Cd, Sb, Tl, Zn and W during mining periods (~1880 and 1950). Most of the enriched metal(loid)s (EF >1.5) (Ag, Bi, Cu, Hg, Pb, Sb, Sn, V and W) do not appear affected by redox and remobilisation issues. For the other enriched metal(loid)s (EF >1.5) (Cd, Tl, and Zn), remobilisation from upper sediments appears to be occurring within these acidic and DOC rich Kejimkujik lakes.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.167 | DOI Listing |
Mar Pollut Bull
January 2025
Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan. Electronic address:
Marine plastic pollution has been a public concern for many decades; however, transport processes of heavy microplastics to the seafloor have long been overlooked given the difficulties in sampling and modeling. The distribution of heavy microplastic deposition on the seafloor in the North Pacific for 65 years since 1951, was estimated using a particle tracking model with 577,143,840 particles. The model revealed that 22 % of heavy microplastics were deposited over 100 km offshore from their release locations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
January 2025
Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
Condensation is a vital process integral to numerous industrial applications. Enhancing condensation efficiency through dropwise condensation on hydrophobic surfaces is well-documented. However, no surfaces have been able to repel liquids with extremely low surface tension, such as fluorinated solvents, during condensation, as they nucleate and completely wet even the most hydrophobic interfaces.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMar Pollut Bull
January 2025
Institute of Aquatic Ecology, HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, Karolina út 29-31, H-1113 Budapest, Hungary; National Laboratory for Water Sciences and Water Security, Institute of Aquatic Ecology, HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, Karolina út 29-31, H-1113 Budapest, Hungary; Institute of Chemistry, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/A, H1113 Budapest, Hungary. Electronic address:
Microplastics (MPs) are an emerging environmental concern, but studies on these contaminants, particularly in river ecosystems, remain scarce. Research has indicated that MPs in the environment are predominantly microfibers (MFs); however, a few studies suggest that the MFs encountered are chiefly of natural origin. In this study, we aimed to improve the understanding of MP/MFs (both plastic and natural), among microparticle (solid particles >10 μm to <5000 μm; mainly of plastic as well as natural origin) loads in the Tiber River, Italy, by analyzing the physicochemical properties of surface water and assessing the abundance and characteristics of MPs-MFs at three sites: Ponte Grillo, Aniene, and Magliana, along a 60 km stretch.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Hazard Mater
January 2025
Radiological Physics and Advisory Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400085, India; Homi Bhabha National Institute, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai 400094, India.
Experiments were conducted in controlled laboratory conditions to determine the size-resolved CCN (Cloud Condensation Nuclei) activity of sub micrometer-sized aerosols containing nuclear fission products (CsI and CsOH) and abundant ambient inorganic aerosols ammonium sulphates ((NH)SO), ammonium chloride (NHCl), sodium nitrate (NaNO), and sodium chloride (NaCl). The presence of these atmospheric-relevant compounds internally mixed with fission product compounds has the potential to affect the capacity of ambient particulates of aerosols to absorb water and function as CCN. Once in the atmosphere, the dynamics of airborne radionuclides and subsequently their fate gets affected by dry and wet deposition processes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcotoxicol Environ Saf
January 2025
College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China. Electronic address:
Nitrate (NO) pollution in groundwater is a worldwide environmental issue, particularly in developed planting-breeding areas where there is a substantial presence of nitrogen-related sources. Here, we explored the key sources and potential health risks of NO in a typical planting-breeding area in the North China Plain based on dual stable isotopes and Monte Carlo simulations. The analysis results revealed that the NO concentration ranged from 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!