Latitudinal gradients of snow contamination in the Rocky Mountains associated with anthropogenic sources

IF 7.3 2区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Environmental Pollution Pub Date : 2025-03-19 DOI:10.1016/j.envpol.2025.126094

Monica M. Arienzo , Kelly E. Gleason , Graham A. Sexstone , Mae Sexauer Gustin , Melissa R. Schwan , Nicole Choma , Sarrah M. Dunham-Cheatham , Joseph R. McConnell , Peter J. Weisberg , Adam Csank

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Abstract

Seasonal snow is an important source of drinking water and recreation, and for agriculture in the Rocky Mountain region. Monitoring snow-water quality can inform on the effects to the albedo and energy balance of the snowpack, and the sources of natural and anthropogenic aerosol and gases. This study analyzed metals in the seasonal snowpack from water year (WY) 2018 for 49 sites. Calcium, lanthanum, and cerium concentrations support the importance of mineral dust to the southern Rocky Mountains. Mercury (Hg), zinc (Zn), and cadmium (Cd) concentrations showed a similar spatial pattern to mineral dust, whereas antimony (Sb) concentrations were highest in the northern Rocky Mountains. To assess the relative contributions from dust versus anthropogenic contaminant sources, enrichment factors (EF) were calculated, with values above 10 indicating anthropogenic contamination. For Cd, Hg, Sb, and Zn, EF values exceeded 10 at northern sites. These observations were compared to spatial trends of EF values of Hg from WY2009 to WY2018, regional monitoring networks, and back trajectory analyses. The agreement between these datasets revealed temporally consistent contaminant sources and/or transport processes to the northern Rocky Mountains snowpack. Sources include current and historical mining and smelting in the region. Strategies to limit the emissions of these metals to the Northern Rockies could benefit from focusing on remediation of contaminated sites, and continued monitoring and mitigation of active mining and smelting.

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与人为源相关的落基山脉积雪污染的纬度梯度

在落基山脉地区，季节性的雪是饮用水和娱乐的重要来源，也是农业的重要来源。监测雪水质量可以了解对积雪反照率和能量平衡的影响，以及自然和人为气溶胶和气体的来源。本研究分析了49个地点2018年水年季节性积雪中的金属。钙、镧和铈的浓度证明了矿物粉尘对落基山脉南部的重要性。汞（Hg）、锌（Zn）和镉（Cd）浓度与矿物粉尘具有相似的空间格局，而锑（Sb）浓度在落基山脉北部最高。为了评估粉尘与人为污染源的相对贡献，计算了富集因子（EF），其值大于10表示人为污染。Cd、Hg、Sb和Zn的EF值均超过10。将这些观测结果与2009年至2018年汞EF值的空间趋势、区域监测网络和反轨迹分析进行了比较。这些数据集之间的一致性揭示了污染物来源和/或向落基山脉北部积雪的运输过程在时间上是一致的。来源包括该地区当前和历史上的采矿和冶炼。限制向北落基山脉排放这些金属的战略可受益于集中精力修复受污染的场地，并继续监测和减少采矿和冶炼活动。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Environmental Pollution 环境科学-环境科学

CiteScore

16.00

自引率

6.70%

发文量

2082

审稿时长

2.9 months

期刊介绍： Environmental Pollution is an international peer-reviewed journal that publishes high-quality research papers and review articles covering all aspects of environmental pollution and its impacts on ecosystems and human health. Subject areas include, but are not limited to: • Sources and occurrences of pollutants that are clearly defined and measured in environmental compartments, food and food-related items, and human bodies; • Interlinks between contaminant exposure and biological, ecological, and human health effects, including those of climate change; • Contaminants of emerging concerns (including but not limited to antibiotic resistant microorganisms or genes, microplastics/nanoplastics, electronic wastes, light, and noise) and/or their biological, ecological, or human health effects; • Laboratory and field studies on the remediation/mitigation of environmental pollution via new techniques and with clear links to biological, ecological, or human health effects; • Modeling of pollution processes, patterns, or trends that is of clear environmental and/or human health interest; • New techniques that measure and examine environmental occurrences, transport, behavior, and effects of pollutants within the environment or the laboratory, provided that they can be clearly used to address problems within regional or global environmental compartments.