Abstract
Dissolved and particulate elements were determined in new ice, nilas and young ice of the Laptev Sea. Sampling was carried out during the autumn freeze-up period in 1995.
The median contents of metals in ice-bound particles are comparable to those found in unpolluted riverine and marine sediments and, thus, give no indication of anthropogenic heavy metal pollution.
In contrast, dissolved trace metal concentrations observed in the new ice north of the Lena delta (Tumatskaya branch) were highly enriched in Mn, Fe, Zn, Cd and Pb in comparison to average concentrations in freshwater of the Lena river. We suggest that remobilization of metals from the particulate phase is the cause of elevated dissolved metal concentrations in the young ice. The release of dissolved metals within the ice should also have an effect on the ice ecology and the river-sea transport of heavy metals within the Arctic.
The observed spatial variations within the major-element vs. aluminum ratios (e.g Mg/Al, Ca/Al, K/Al and REE/Al) of ice-rafted sediments could be directly related to the geochemical signatures of different fluvial sediment sources. These results suggest that riverine particulate trace elements are effectively incorporated into the ice and so can be used as tracer for the identification of shelf source areas of ice rafted sediments within the Arctic.
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Hölemann, J.A., Schirmacher, M., Prange, A. (1999). Dissolved and Particulate Major and Trace Elements in Newly Formed Ice from the Laptev Sea (Transdrift III, October 1995). In: Kassens, H., et al. Land-Ocean Systems in the Siberian Arctic. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60134-7_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60134-7_11
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