ALBERT

Description: Biomass burning influences global climate change and the composition of the atmosphere. The drivers, effects, and climate feedbacks related to fire are poorly understood. Many different proxies have been used to reconstruct past fire frequency from lake sediments and polar ice cores. Reconstruction of historical trends in biomass burning is challenging because of regional variability and the qualitative nature of various proxies. Vanillic acid (4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzoic acid) is a product of the combustion of conifer lignin that is known to occur in biomass burning aerosols. Biomass burning is likely the only significant source of vanillic acid in polar ice. In this study we describe an analytical method for quantifying vanillic acid in polar ice using HPLC with electrospray ionization and tandem mass spectrometric detection. The method has a detection limit of 100 pM and a precision of ± 10% at the 100 pM level for analysis of 100 μl of ice melt water. The method was used to analyze more than 1000 discrete samples from the Akademii Nauk ice cap on Severnaya Zemlya in the high Russia Arctic (79°30’N, 97°45’E) (Fritzsche et al., 2002; Fritzsche et al., 2005; Weiler et al., 2005). The samples range in age over the past 2,000 years. The results show a mean vanillic acid concentration of 440 ± 710 pM (1σ), with elevated levels during the periods from 300-600 and 1450-1550 C.E.

Description: Biomass burning is a major source atmospheric gases and aerosols, and an important part of the global carbon cycle and radiation budget. The factors controlling centennial and millennial variability in region/global biomass burning are not well understood because there are few well-dated proxy records. We are exploring ice core records of organic compounds resulting from incomplete combustion of lignin as tracers for biomass burning. In this study we investigate the distribution of vanillic acid (VA) in Arctic ice cores. VA is a major product of conifer combustion, but may also be produced from angiosperms. VA was measured in ice core samples using ion chromatography with electrospray MS/MS detection. Here we present measurements of vanillic acid in three Arctic ice cores from Siberia (Akademii Nauk; 0-3 kyr bp), northern Greenland (Tunu; 0-1.75 kyr bp), and Svalbard (Lomonosovfonna; 0-0.75 kyr bp). The Siberian record exhibits 3 strong centennial scale maxima (1200-600 BC, AD 300-800, and AD 1450-1700). All three cores exhibit a smaller feature around 1250, with a subsequent decline in Greenland and Svalbard. VA levels in Greenland and Svalbard are generally smaller than those in Siberia. These results suggest strong input from Asian sources to the Siberian core, and lower Arctic-wide “background” levels at the other sites.

Description: Efforts to extract a Greenland ice core with a complete record of the Eemian interglacial (130,000 to 115,000 years ago) have until now been unsuccessful. The response of the Greenland ice sheet to the warmer-than-present climate of the Eemian has thus remained unclear. Here we present the new North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling (‘NEEM’) ice core and show only a modest ice-sheet response to the strong warming in the early Eemian. We reconstructed the Eemian record from folded ice using globally homogeneous parameters known from dated Greenland and Antarctic ice-core records. On the basis of water stable isotopes, NEEM surface temperatures after the onset of the Eemian (126,000 years ago) peaked at 8 ± 4 degrees Celsius above the mean of the past millennium, followed by a gradual cooling that was probably driven by the decreasing summer insolation. Between 128,000 and 122,000 years ago, the thickness of the northwest Greenland ice sheet decreased by 400 ± 250 metres, reaching surface elevations 122,000 years ago of 130 ± 300 metres lower than the present. Extensive surface melt occurred at the NEEM site during the Eemian, a phenomenon witnessed when melt layers formed again at NEEM during the exceptional heat of July 2012. With additional warming, surface melt might become more common in the future.

Description: Interior Antarctica is among the most remote places on Earth and was thought to be beyond the reach of human impacts when Amundsen and Scott raced to the South Pole in 1911. Here we show detailed measurements from an extensive array of 16 ice cores quantifying substantial toxic heavy metal lead pollution at South Pole and throughout Antarctica by 1889 – beating polar explorers by more than 22 years. Unlike the Arctic where lead pollution peaked in the 1970s, lead pollution in Antarctica was as high in the early 20th century as at any time since industrialization. The similar timing and magnitude of changes in lead deposition across Antarctica, as well as the characteristic isotopic signature of Broken Hill lead found throughout the continent, suggest that this single emission source in southern Australia was responsible for the introduction of lead pollution into Antarctica at the end of the 19th century and remains a significant source today. An estimated 660 t of industrial lead have been deposited over Antarctica during the past 130 years as a result of mid-latitude industrial emissions, with regional-to-global scale circulation likely modulating aerosol concentrations. Despite abatement efforts, significant lead pollution in Antarctica persists into the 21st century.

Description: Biomass burning plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry, the global carbon cycle, and climate. The relationship between burning and climate, and the factors that influence burning emissions over long timescales are not well understood. Therefore, well-dated records are needed to establish a history of biomass burning. In this study we examine the distribution of vanillic (VA) and p-hydroxybenzoic (p-HBA) acids in a Siberian Arctic ice core (Akademii Nauk) covering the past 2800 years. These molecules are produced by the incomplete combustion of lignin, incorporated into atmospheric aerosols, and transported/deposited on ice sheets. VA and p-HBA are generated from the combustion of conifers and grasses, respectively, but are not uniquely derived from these sources. These records should be considered qualitative because a wide range of aerosols is generated from various plant materials under different combustion conditions. The records may also reflect changes in source region locations, transport efficiency, and atmospheric removal prior to deposition. Ice core samples were analyzed using ion chromatography with electrospray MS/MS detection. VA and p-HBA levels were markedly elevated during three time periods. The most recent of these periods occurred from AD 1450-1720 (140-220 m). The timing of two earlier peaks is less well constrained. They are estimated to be from 300-700 AD (400-500 m) and from 800-400 BC (610-670 m). The similarity between VA and p-HBA suggests that the two compounds are derived from a common source. These three periods of elevated VA and p-HBA are not evident in nitrate, ammonium, or black carbon measurements from the same ice core or with high latitude sedimentary charcoal records from North America, Europe, or eastern Siberia.