Lake Sediment Archive Reveals a Distinct Response to Anthropogenic Pb and Zn Deposition with Historical Periods: Pb–Zn Isotope Evidence

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c00511
• Publication Date: 2023-09-19T02:31:19Z
• Authors: Yafei Xia; Yuhui Liu; Chengshuai Liu; Ting Gao; Runsheng Yin; Meng Qi; Hongchen Wu
• Keywords: Deposition; Sediment core

Anthropogenic activities release large quantities of heavy metals into the atmosphere. In China, input these through local and trans-boundary atmospheric deposition is poorly understood. To assess this issue, herein, we use Pb Zn isotopes to constrain sources in a 210Pb-dated sediment core collected from enclosed lake South China. We observed progressive shift toward higher 208Pb/206Pb fluxes (0.79-4.02 μg·cm-2·a-1) 1850 1950 consistent decrease δ66ZnIRMM (as low as -0.097 ± 0.030‰) coupled with an increase (1.74-3.36 (8.07-10.44 after 1980. These distinguished isotopic signals flux variations reveal presence since 1900, addition industrial pollution Up 72.3% deposited at our site can be attributed long-distance transportation previously industrialized countries, resulting noteworthy legacy China 1900. Despite phasing out leaded gasoline, Chinese gasoline still contributes average 20.9%. The contribution China's mining smelting has increased steadily 1980 remained stable 25.1% 2000.