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Isotopic Record of Lead Contamination in Alluvial Soils and Tree Rings on Recent Floodplains (Southern Québec, Canada)

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Abstract

Current and past industrial pollution leaves many traces in the environment, in particular along rivers in industrial and urban areas. The isotopic analysis of the lead found in soils and tree rings offers a kind of environmental archive for presenting a portrait of the pollutant distribution in the environment in both spatial and temporal terms. This study is an attempt to identify and compare the source of contamination found in soils and tree rings located along two rivers affected by pollution over several years. Specifically, the focus is on the pattern of lead concentrations and lead isotopic signatures (206Pb/207Pb, 208Pb/206Pb, and 206Pb/204Pb) detected in soils and tree rings located on polluted floodplains. The concentration of Pb in overbank sediments does not rise with the increasing distance downstream from the point source (mining area), suggesting that significant fluvial transport of the pollutant particles over 80 km is involved. For the soil profiles, Pb concentration levels range between 12.32 and 149.13 mg/kg, with the highest concentrations found at the base of the profiles (>1 m). For the lead isotope ratios in the soil profiles, the values obtained range from 0.851 to 0.872 (206Pb/207Pb), 2.081 to 2.111 (208Pb/206Pb), and 0.547 to 0.562 (206Pb/204Pb). The tree ring analysis of red ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh.) shows average lead concentrations of 0.63 μg/g, and the lead values of all the tree specimens range between 0.03 and 11.38 μg/g. Pb concentrations varied greatly between the specimens in selected sites and lead isotope ratios in the tree rings showed a strong variability in the time series, particularly from 1945 to 1970. The greater number of variations in the lead concentration rates and isotopic ratios suggest that many more events associated with pollution and contamination have in fact occurred in this area. The study demonstrates the utility of combining stable isotope analyses (soils and tree rings) to examine the source and dispersion of contaminant Pb in fluvial systems by providing reliable and robust indicators for the detection of environmental changes on a local and regional scale.

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Notes

  1. In Canada, the lead content in gasoline was reduced in the 1980s (Bollhöfer and Rosman 2001) and gasoline with lead was removed from the market for good in 1990 (CEPA 1990).

  2. The former Eustis mine was part of mining complex that includes two other copper mines, including the Albert and Capelton mines located less than 2 km from Eustis.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the individuals and organizations that contributed to this study, including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for their financial support. We would like to acknowledge sincerely the reviewers for their constructive comments. We would like also to acknowledge Dr. Christian Bégin (GCC-Québec) for the collaboration, and the Geological Commission of Canada and INRS-ETE laboratory's support for soils and tree rings geochemical analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Géographie et Laboratoire de recherche en géomorphologie fluviale, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351, boul. des Forges, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G9A 5H7

    Diane Saint-Laurent

  2. Environnement et Développement durable, Ville de Trois-Rivières, C.P. 368, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G9A 5H3

    Julien St-Laurent

  3. Département de Chimie et Biologie, Sciences de l’Environnement, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G9A 5H7

    Patricia Duplessis

  4. Group GDG Environment, 430, rue Saint-Laurent, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G8T 6H3

    Luc Lavoie

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  1. Diane Saint-Laurent
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  2. Julien St-Laurent
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Correspondence to Diane Saint-Laurent.

Appendix

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Table 2 Recension of principal studies on lead isotopic composition in different regions of Eastern Canada
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Saint-Laurent, D., St-Laurent, J., Duplessis, P. et al. Isotopic Record of Lead Contamination in Alluvial Soils and Tree Rings on Recent Floodplains (Southern Québec, Canada). Water Air Soil Pollut 209, 451–466 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-009-0213-7

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