A 60 year record of atmospheric aerosol depositions preserved in a high-accumulation dome ice core, southeast Greenland

The Southeastern Greenland Dome (SE-Dome) has both a high elevation and a high accumulation rate (1.01 m w.e. yr-1), which are suitable properties for reconstructing past environmental changes with a high time resolution. For this study, we measured the major ion fluxes in a 90-m ice core drilled fr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
Main Authors: Iizuka, Yoshinori, Uemura, Ryu, Fujita, Koji, Hattori, Shohei, Seki, Osamu, Miyamoto, Chihiro, Suzuki, Toshitaka, Yoshida, Naohiro, Motoyama, Hideaki, Matoba, Sumito
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Geophysical Union
Subjects:
Anthropogenic Emission
Ice Core
Post-Depositional Effect
Nitrate
Sulfate
Greenland
Isotopic composition and chemistry
Ice cores
Chemical and biological geochronology
Cryospheric change
Regional climate change
450
ice core
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2115/70919
https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JD026733
Description
Summary:The Southeastern Greenland Dome (SE-Dome) has both a high elevation and a high accumulation rate (1.01 m w.e. yr-1), which are suitable properties for reconstructing past environmental changes with a high time resolution. For this study, we measured the major ion fluxes in a 90-m ice core drilled from the SE-Dome region in 2015, and present the records of annual ion fluxes from 1957 to 2014. From 1970 to 2010, the trend of non-sea-salt (nss) SO42- flux decreases, whereas that for NH4+ increases, tracking well with the anthropogenic SOx and NH3 emissions mainly from North America. The result suggests that these fluxes reflect histories of the anthropogenic SOx and NH3 emissions. In contrast, the decadal trend of NO3- flux differs from the decreasing trend of anthropogenic NOx emissions. Although the cause of this discrepancy remains unclear, it may be related to changes in particle formation processes and chemical scavenging rates caused by an increase in sea-salt and dust and/or a decrease in nssSO42-. We also find a high average NO3- flux (1.13 mmol m-2 yr-1) in the ice core, which suggests a negligible effect from post-depositional NO3- loss. Thus, the SE-Dome region is an excellent location for reconstructing nitrate fluxes. Over a decadal timescale, our NO3- flux record is similar to those from other ice cores in Greenland high-elevation sites, suggesting that NO3- concentrations records from these ice cores are reliable.

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