The chronology of anthropogenic, atmospheric Pb deposition recorded by peat cores in three minerogenic peat deposits from Switzerland

Peat cores were collected from three minerogenic peatlands in Switzerland: La Tourbiere des Genevez (TGE), in Canton Jura; Gola di Lago (GDL), in Canton Ticino; and Mauntschas (MAU), in Canton Grisons. Chemical analyses of the pore waters and the peats document the increasingly minerogenic character with depth. In particular, the Sr concentration profile in the peats reflects the growing importance of mineral sediment dissolution with increasing distance below the peat surface. Despite this circumstance, Pb concentrations are greatest in the surface layers, and decrease with depth. Thus, dissolution of the basal sediments at these sites appears to be an unimportant source of Pb, compared with atmospheric deposition. Twenty-one new radiocarbon age dates for the three cores provide a chronology of Pb enrichment, and these are consistent with the record of atmospheric Pb deposition recorded by the ombrotrophic peat bog 'Etang de la Gruere' (EGR). Sediment samples from TGE and EGR were reacted at pH 5 with ammonium acetate to dissolve the carbonate fraction, filtered, and the residues analyzed using XRE These analyses show that much of the Ca, Mg, Sr and Mn is lost when the carbonate fraction is dissolved, but this process does not measurably affect Pb. This finding suggests that carbonate dissolution dominates the weathering of the sediments underlying these peat deposits, but this fraction does not contain significant concentrations of Pb. Minerogenic peat deposits such as those described here, therefore, can serve as reliable archives of atmospheric Pb deposition, provided that mineral dissolution in the underlying sediments does not contribute measurably to the Pb inventory of the peat profile. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.