Return of naturally sourced Pb to Atlantic surface waters

Bridgestock, Luke, van de Flierdt, Tina, Rehkamper, Mark, Paul, Maxence, Middag, Rob, Milne, Angela, Lohan, Maeve C., Baker, Alex R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8365-8953, Chance, Rosie, Khondoker, Roulin, Strekopytov, Stanislav, Humphreys-Williams, Emma, Achterberg, Eric P., Rijkenberg, Micha J. A., Gerringa, Loes J. A. and de Baar, Hein J. W. (2016) Return of naturally sourced Pb to Atlantic surface waters. Nature Communications, 7. ISSN 2041-1723

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Abstract

Anthropogenic emissions completely overwhelmed natural marine lead (Pb) sources during the past century, predominantly due to leaded petrol usage. Here, based on Pb isotope measurements, we reassess the importance of natural and anthropogenic Pb sources to the tropical North Atlantic following the nearly complete global cessation of leaded petrol use. Significant proportions of up to 30–50% of natural Pb, derived from mineral dust, are observed in Atlantic surface waters, reflecting the success of the global effort to reduce anthropogenic Pb emissions. The observation of mineral dust derived Pb in surface waters is governed by the elevated atmospheric mineral dust concentration of the North African dust plume and the dominance of dry deposition for the atmospheric aerosol flux to surface waters. Given these specific regional conditions, emissions from anthropogenic activities will remain the dominant global marine Pb source, even in the absence of leaded petrol combustion.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences Faculty of Science > School of Natural Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	24 Sep 2016 00:49
Last Modified:	13 Apr 2023 13:49
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/60231
DOI:	10.1038/ncomms12921

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