Atmospheric deposition and contamination of trace elements in snowpacks of mountain glaciers in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau

Ting Wei; Zhiwen Dong; Shichang Kang; Chunlei Zong; Masoud Rostami; Yaping Shao

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.455

Atmospheric deposition and contamination of trace elements in snowpacks of mountain glaciers in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Nov 1:689:754-764. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.455. Epub 2019 Jun 28.

Authors

Ting Wei¹, Zhiwen Dong², Shichang Kang³, Chunlei Zong⁴, Masoud Rostami⁵, Yaping Shao⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Cryosphere Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou 730000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Cryosphere Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou 730000, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100101, China; Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Cologne, Cologne D-50923, Germany. Electronic address: dongzhiwen@lzb.ac.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Cryosphere Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou 730000, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: shichang.kang@lzb.ac.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China.
⁵ Institute for Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Cologne, Cologne D-50923, Germany.

PMID: 31280157
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.455

Abstract

To investigate the large-scale trace element deposition and anthropogenic pollution in mountain glaciers of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau (TP) and its surrounding regions, we analyzed Al and 13 trace elements (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sb, V, and Zn) in glacier snowpacks collected at the Yuzhufeng, Laohugou No.12, and Qiyi glaciers (YG, LG12, and QG, respectively) in the northeastern TP as well as in the Miaoergou Glacier (MG) in the eastern Tianshan Mountains in June 2017. The concentrations and enrichment factors (EFs) of most trace elements (e.g., As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Sb) showed that the largest value appeared in the MG, followed by LG12, and the lowest value appeared in the QG, thereby implying a decreasing influence of anthropogenic emissions on these elements from the west (MG) to the east (QG). The YG inversely exhibited high concentrations but low EFs for As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Pb, and Sb. Compared to the surrounding regions of the southern and western TP (e.g., NamCo, Mt. Everest, and Pamirs), Japan, and Kathmandu, the trace element concentrations were relatively higher at the YG and MG but relatively lower at the LG12 and QG. The spatial distribution characteristics of trace elements (e.g., Pb and Sb) exhibited a gradually decreasing concentration from west to east in the Tianshan Mountains, and from south to north in the TP, implying two potential transport routes of atmospheric pollutants from Central and South Asia to the northeastern TP. The Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) backward trajectory model and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations/Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIPSO/CALIOP) data reflected that these trace elements in the MG, LG12, and QG predominately originated from the western and surrounding areas, whereas in the YG they were mainly derived from a local source and South Asia through long-distance transport.

Keywords: Anthropogenic sources; Contamination; Glacier snowpack; Northeastern Tibetan plateau; Trace elements.