A 700year record of combustion-derived pollution in northern Spain: Tools to identify the Holocene/Anthropocene transition in coastal environments

Abstract

There is an uneven geographical distribution of historic records of atmospheric pollutants from SW Europe and those that exist are very limited in temporal extent. Alternative data source is required to understand temporal trends in human impacts on atmospheric pollution. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metal content and stable Pb isotopic ratios in a sediment core from a salt marsh in northern Spain were used to reconstruct the regional history of contaminant inputs over the last 700 years. Pre-1800s concentrations of Pb and PAHs represented baseline concentrations, i.e. pre-Industrial, conditions. During the initial stages of the Industrial Revolution, 1800s to 1860s, PAH concentrations increased by a factor of about two above baseline levels in the sediment column. By the 1930s, PAH levels reached ca. 10 times pre-Industrial levels and, along with Pb, reached a peak at ca. 1975 CE. Since then, sedimentary PAH and Pb concentrations decreased significantly. A combination of PAH isomer and Pb stable isotope ratios suggests that the contaminant sources are regional, likely derived partially from wood, but mainly coal used by the metallurgic industry in the Basque country since the 1800s and until the 1970s when leaded petrol saw increased use. This chronology of regional atmosphere-derived pollution expands current southwest Europe emission records and shows coastal salt marsh sediments to be useful in reconstructing the Anthropocene.