Consistent histories of anthropogenic western European air pollution preserved in different Alpine ice cores

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: A. Eichler, M. Legrand, T. M. Jenk, S. Preunkert, C. Andersson, S. Eckhardt, M. Engardt, A. Plach, M. Schwikowski
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2023
• Subjects: Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Geology; QE1-996.5; ice core; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2119-2023; https://doaj.org/article/18704bcf91584589a016413e686c4541

Individual high-Alpine ice cores have been proven to contain a well-preserved history of past anthropogenic air pollution in western Europe. The question of how representative one ice core is with respect to the reconstruction of atmospheric composition in the source region has not been addressed so far. Here, we present the first study systematically comparing longer-term ice-core records (1750–2015 CE) of various anthropogenic compounds, such as major inorganic aerosol constituents ( NH 4 + <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24pt" height="15pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="8aeb386a576ed6c8280ae774099f80e4"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tc-17-2119-2023-ie00001.svg" width="24pt" height="15pt" src="tc-17-2119-2023-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg> , NO 3 - <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="25pt" height="16pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="4c315b3ea451cf26923ad12993612b33"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tc-17-2119-2023-ie00002.svg" width="25pt" height="16pt" src="tc-17-2119-2023-ie00002.png"/></svg:svg> , SO 4 2 - <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="29pt" height="17pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="6060a0eb6022af681aa55d19b3180df9"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tc-17-2119-2023-ie00003.svg" width="29pt" height="17pt" src="tc-17-2119-2023-ie00003.png"/></svg:svg> ), black carbon (BC), and trace species ( Cd , F − , Pb ). Depending on the data availability for the different air pollutants, up to five ice cores from four high-Alpine sites located in the European Alps analysed by different laboratories were considered. Whereas absolute concentration levels can partly differ depending on the prevailing seasonal distribution of accumulated precipitation, all seven investigated anthropogenic compounds are in excellent agreement between the various sites for their ...