The use of Pb-210 to normalize fluxes and burdens of atmospheric contaminants in lake sediment cores

Conference · Tue Jan 09 04:00:00 EST 1990 · EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union; (United States)

OSTI ID:6620539

Brunskill, G J; Wilkinson, P; Hunt, R; Muir, D; Billeck, B; Lockhart, L ^[1]

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1. Freshwater Inst., Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada)

It is possible to estimate the local annual atmospheric flux (Bq/m[sup 2] [sm bullet] yr) of Pb-210 to land and lake surfaces from measurements of the integral of excess Pb-210 in soil and peat profiles. If you compare this average Pb-210 flux to the soil surface, to the Pb-210 flux to deep lake sediments, you will usually find that the lake sediment flux is a factor of 2 to 6 greater. This is because most of the clay-sized and organic material added to the lake (and resuspended in the lake) each year is funneled into the deeper parts of the lake basin. The ratio of the deep lake Pb-210 sediment flux to the average terrestrial soil Pb-210 flux will be called the focusing factor, which can be used to crudely estimate whole lake sedimentation rates (g/m[sup 2] lake surface area [sm bullet] yr). Many industrial and agricultural contaminants are delivered to remote lakes by atmospheric deposition, and those contaminants that are strongly particle reactive will usually be resuspended and funneled into the deeper parts of the lake basin similar to Pb-210. Often a single sediment core history of deposition is used to estimate contaminant burdens and fluxes at the coring site in a lake basin. These deep basin contaminant burdens and fluxes can be divided by the focusing factor to estimate the burden per unit lake surface area and the atmospheric deposition rate to the lake surface area.

• OSTI ID: 6620539
• Report Number(s): CONF-9002174--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union; (United States) Journal Volume: 71:2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540120 -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
540320* -- Environment
Aquatic-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
AGRICULTURAL WASTES
AIR POLLUTION
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ANNUAL VARIATIONS
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
DEPOSITION
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ENERGY SOURCES
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
FALLOUT
FALLOUT DEPOSITS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HEAVY NUCLEI
INDUSTRIAL WASTES
ISOTOPES
LAKES
LEAD 210
LEAD ISOTOPES
MATTER
NUCLEI
ORGANIC MATTER
ORGANIC WASTES
PEAT
POLLUTION
RADIOISOTOPES
SEDIMENTATION
SEDIMENTS
SURFACE AREA
SURFACE PROPERTIES
SURFACE WATERS
SURFACES
VARIATIONS
WASTES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES