McConnell Joseph R, Chellman Nathan J, Wensman Sophia M, Plach Andreas, Stanish Charles, Santibáñez Pamela A, Brugger Sandra O, Eckhardt Sabine, Freitag Johannes, Kipfstuhl Sepp, Stohl Andreas
Division of Hydrologic Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV 89512, USA.
Division of Hydrologic Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV 89512, USA.
Sci Total Environ. 2024 Feb 20;912:169431. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169431. Epub 2023 Dec 22.
Records from polar and alpine ice reflect past changes in background and industrial toxic heavy metal emissions. While Northern Hemisphere records have been used to evaluate environmental effects and linkages to historical events such as foreign conquests, plagues, economic downturns, and technological developments during the past three millennia, little is known about the magnitude and environmental effects of such emissions in the Southern Hemisphere or their historical linkages, especially prior to late 19th century industrialization. Here we used detailed measurements of the toxic heavy metals lead, cadmium, and thallium, as well as non-toxic bismuth, cerium, and sulfur in an array of five East Antarctic ice cores to investigate hemispheric-scale pollution during the Common Era. While thallium showed no anthropogenic increases, the other three metals increased by orders of magnitude in recent centuries after accounting for crustal and volcanic components. These first detailed records indicate that East Antarctic lead pollution started in the 13th century coincident with Late Intermediate Period metallurgy in the Andes and was pervasive during the Spanish Colonial period in parallel with large-scale exploitation of Andean silver and other ore deposits. Lead isotopic variations suggest that 19th-century increases in lead, cadmium, and bismuth resulted from Australian lead and Bolivian tin mining emissions, with 20th century pollution largely the result of the latter. As in the Northern Hemisphere, variations in heavy metal pollution coincided with plagues, cultural and technological developments, as well as global economic and political events including the Great Depression and the World Wars. Estimated atmospheric heavy metal emissions from Spanish Colonial-era mining and smelting during the late 16th and early 17th century were comparable to estimated European emissions during the 1st-century apex of the Roman Empire, with atmospheric model simulations suggesting hemispheric-scale toxic heavy metal pollution during the past five centuries as a result.
极地和高山冰层记录反映了过去背景和工业有毒重金属排放的变化。虽然北半球的记录已被用于评估环境影响以及与过去三千年中的外国征服、瘟疫、经济衰退和技术发展等历史事件的联系，但对于南半球此类排放的规模和环境影响或其历史联系，人们知之甚少，尤其是在19世纪后期工业化之前。在这里，我们对五个东南极冰芯中的有毒重金属铅、镉和铊以及无毒铋、铈和硫进行了详细测量，以研究公元时期的半球尺度污染。虽然铊没有显示出人为增加，但在考虑地壳和火山成分后，其他三种金属在最近几个世纪里增加了几个数量级。这些首批详细记录表明，东南极的铅污染始于13世纪，与安第斯地区晚期中期冶金同时发生，并且在西班牙殖民时期很普遍，这与对安第斯银矿和其他矿床的大规模开采同时出现。铅同位素变化表明，19世纪铅、镉和铋的增加是澳大利亚铅矿和玻利维亚锡矿开采排放造成的，20世纪的污染主要是后者造成的。与北半球一样，重金属污染的变化与瘟疫、文化和技术发展以及包括大萧条和两次世界大战在内的全球经济和政治事件相吻合。16世纪末和17世纪初西班牙殖民时期采矿和冶炼产生的估计大气重金属排放量与罗马帝国公元1世纪顶峰时期欧洲的估计排放量相当，大气模型模拟表明，过去五个世纪里由此造成了半球尺度的有毒重金属污染。
