Abstract
Sediment cores were taken from the remote Sagamore and Woods Lakes in New York State's Adirondack acid lake region and analyzed for 3 to 7 ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and Ag, Al, As, Be, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Ph, Se, Sn, TI, V, and Zn. With the exception of perylene, all of the parental PAHs, e.g. those without sidechains, and several of the metals, Pb, As, and Cd, were found to be significantly increased in the sediments of both lakes compared to their natural integrated deposits (ng cm−2) and their background concentrations (μg g−1 or ng g−1 dry wt). Although the concentrations were generally much higher in Woods Lake, the total anthropogenic integrated depositions were about the same in both lakes for most of the metals and the 3 to 4 ring PAHs. The prime source of most of the 3 to 7 ring PAHs and trace elements measured is ascribed to anthropogenic combustion. Anthropogenically derived materials decreased in concentration with depth to baseline levels in sediment layers estimated by137Cs analyses to be ∼30 yr old, while biogenic or crustal derived species remained constant or fluctuated with core depth.
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Heit, M., Tan, Y., Klusek, C. et al. Anthropogenic trace elements and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon levels in sediment cores from two lakes in the Adirondack acid lake region. Water Air Soil Pollut 15, 441–464 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00279426
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00279426