Sulfur isotopes quantify the impact of anthropogenic activities on industrial-era Arctic sulfate in a Greenland ice core

Anthropogenic sulfate aerosols are estimated to have offset 60% of greenhouse-gas-induced warming in the Arctic, a region warming four times faster than the rest of the world. However, sulfate radiative forcing estimates remain uncertain because the relative contributions from anthropogenic versus n...

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Published in:Environmental Research Letters
Main Authors: Ursula A Jongebloed, Andrew J Schauer, Shohei Hattori, Jihong Cole-Dai, Carleigh G Larrick, Sara Salimi, Shana R Edouard, Lei Geng, Becky Alexander
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2023
Subjects:
Q
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acdc3d
https://doaj.org/article/5e30d8e9a3b948a1b591c3f448d3fee9
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spelling ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:5e30d8e9a3b948a1b591c3f448d3fee9 2023-09-05T13:17:01+02:00 Sulfur isotopes quantify the impact of anthropogenic activities on industrial-era Arctic sulfate in a Greenland ice core Ursula A Jongebloed Andrew J Schauer Shohei Hattori Jihong Cole-Dai Carleigh G Larrick Sara Salimi Shana R Edouard Lei Geng Becky Alexander 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acdc3d https://doaj.org/article/5e30d8e9a3b948a1b591c3f448d3fee9 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acdc3d https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/acdc3d 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/5e30d8e9a3b948a1b591c3f448d3fee9 Environmental Research Letters, Vol 18, Iss 7, p 074020 (2023) Arctic pollution climate ice core sulfate aerosol Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acdc3d 2023-08-13T00:36:54Z Anthropogenic sulfate aerosols are estimated to have offset 60% of greenhouse-gas-induced warming in the Arctic, a region warming four times faster than the rest of the world. However, sulfate radiative forcing estimates remain uncertain because the relative contributions from anthropogenic versus natural sources to total sulfate aerosols are unknown. Here we measure sulfur isotopes of sulfate in a Summit, Greenland ice core from 1850 to 2006 CE to quantify the contribution of anthropogenic sulfur emissions to ice core sulfate. We use a Keeling plot to determine the anthropogenic sulfur isotopic signature (δ ^34 S _anthro = +2.9 ± 0.3 ‰), and compare this result to a compilation of sulfur isotope measurements of oil and coal. Using δ ^34 S _anthro , we quantify anthropogenic sulfate concentration separated from natural sulfate. Anthropogenic sulfate concentration increases to 67 ± 7% of non-sea-salt sulfate (65.1 ± 20.2 µ g kg ^−1 ) during peak anthropogenic emissions from 1960 to 1990 and decreases to 45 ± 11% of non-sea-salt sulfate (25.4 ± 12.8 µ g kg ^−1 ) from 1996 to 2006. These observations provide the first long-term record of anthropogenic sulfate distinguished from natural sources (e.g. volcanoes, dimethyl sulfide), and can be used to evaluate model characterization of anthropogenic sulfate aerosol fraction and radiative forcing over the industrial era. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic pollution Greenland Greenland ice core ice core Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Greenland Environmental Research Letters 18 7 074020
institution Open Polar
collection Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles
op_collection_id ftdoajarticles
language English
topic Arctic
pollution
climate
ice core
sulfate
aerosol
Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering
TD1-1066
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Science
Q
Physics
QC1-999
spellingShingle Arctic
pollution
climate
ice core
sulfate
aerosol
Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering
TD1-1066
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Science
Q
Physics
QC1-999
Ursula A Jongebloed
Andrew J Schauer
Shohei Hattori
Jihong Cole-Dai
Carleigh G Larrick
Sara Salimi
Shana R Edouard
Lei Geng
Becky Alexander
Sulfur isotopes quantify the impact of anthropogenic activities on industrial-era Arctic sulfate in a Greenland ice core
topic_facet Arctic
pollution
climate
ice core
sulfate
aerosol
Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering
TD1-1066
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Science
Q
Physics
QC1-999
description Anthropogenic sulfate aerosols are estimated to have offset 60% of greenhouse-gas-induced warming in the Arctic, a region warming four times faster than the rest of the world. However, sulfate radiative forcing estimates remain uncertain because the relative contributions from anthropogenic versus natural sources to total sulfate aerosols are unknown. Here we measure sulfur isotopes of sulfate in a Summit, Greenland ice core from 1850 to 2006 CE to quantify the contribution of anthropogenic sulfur emissions to ice core sulfate. We use a Keeling plot to determine the anthropogenic sulfur isotopic signature (δ ^34 S _anthro = +2.9 ± 0.3 ‰), and compare this result to a compilation of sulfur isotope measurements of oil and coal. Using δ ^34 S _anthro , we quantify anthropogenic sulfate concentration separated from natural sulfate. Anthropogenic sulfate concentration increases to 67 ± 7% of non-sea-salt sulfate (65.1 ± 20.2 µ g kg ^−1 ) during peak anthropogenic emissions from 1960 to 1990 and decreases to 45 ± 11% of non-sea-salt sulfate (25.4 ± 12.8 µ g kg ^−1 ) from 1996 to 2006. These observations provide the first long-term record of anthropogenic sulfate distinguished from natural sources (e.g. volcanoes, dimethyl sulfide), and can be used to evaluate model characterization of anthropogenic sulfate aerosol fraction and radiative forcing over the industrial era.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Ursula A Jongebloed
Andrew J Schauer
Shohei Hattori
Jihong Cole-Dai
Carleigh G Larrick
Sara Salimi
Shana R Edouard
Lei Geng
Becky Alexander
author_facet Ursula A Jongebloed
Andrew J Schauer
Shohei Hattori
Jihong Cole-Dai
Carleigh G Larrick
Sara Salimi
Shana R Edouard
Lei Geng
Becky Alexander
author_sort Ursula A Jongebloed
title Sulfur isotopes quantify the impact of anthropogenic activities on industrial-era Arctic sulfate in a Greenland ice core
title_short Sulfur isotopes quantify the impact of anthropogenic activities on industrial-era Arctic sulfate in a Greenland ice core
title_full Sulfur isotopes quantify the impact of anthropogenic activities on industrial-era Arctic sulfate in a Greenland ice core
title_fullStr Sulfur isotopes quantify the impact of anthropogenic activities on industrial-era Arctic sulfate in a Greenland ice core
title_full_unstemmed Sulfur isotopes quantify the impact of anthropogenic activities on industrial-era Arctic sulfate in a Greenland ice core
title_sort sulfur isotopes quantify the impact of anthropogenic activities on industrial-era arctic sulfate in a greenland ice core
publisher IOP Publishing
publishDate 2023
url https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acdc3d
https://doaj.org/article/5e30d8e9a3b948a1b591c3f448d3fee9
geographic Arctic
Greenland
geographic_facet Arctic
Greenland
genre Arctic
Arctic pollution
Greenland
Greenland ice core
ice core
genre_facet Arctic
Arctic pollution
Greenland
Greenland ice core
ice core
op_source Environmental Research Letters, Vol 18, Iss 7, p 074020 (2023)
op_relation https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acdc3d
https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326
doi:10.1088/1748-9326/acdc3d
1748-9326
https://doaj.org/article/5e30d8e9a3b948a1b591c3f448d3fee9
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acdc3d
container_title Environmental Research Letters
container_volume 18
container_issue 7
container_start_page 074020
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