In highly industrialized, densely populated parts of Central Europe, mobilization of legacy Zn pollution from forest ecosystems may negatively affect the quality of water resources. To test this hypothesis, we determined the 66Zn/64Zn isotope ratios of 15 Zn reservoirs and fluxes in an acidified, spruce die-back affected mountain-slope catchment in northern Czech Republic. The δ66Zn values of precipitation, organic horizon, and runoff were statistically indistinguishable. In contrast, δ66Zn values of bedrock orthogneiss and mineral soil were significantly different from δ66Zn values of runoff. The magnitude of within-site Zn isotope fractionations appeared to be relatively small. Despite the large potential source of Zn in bedrock, runoff exported mostly young pollutant Zn that had been temporarily stored in the organic horizon. This conclusion was corroborated by comparing Zn input-output mass balances in the polluted northern catchment and in a relatively unpolluted catchment situated 250 km to the south. Seven-times higher Zn export via runoff at the northern site was controlled by a combination of 10-times higher atmospheric Zn input and five-times higher DOC leaching, compared to the southern site. In industrial areas, atmospherically deposited Zn is leached from headwater catchments in a direct analogy to leaching of highly toxic pollutant Pb.
Keywords: atmospheric deposition; headwater catchments; pollution; runoff; zinc isotopes.